The theory of the tragedy of the commons is well-known: it is in the interests of any individual to add to his stock of animals on common land, even if that leads to further degradation.
That unpleasant outcome was dubbed the Tragedy of the Commons.
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This should come as no surprise to anyone who understands the very different economic incentives that prevail under the tragedy of the commons versus those that yield the bounty produced under private property regimes.
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Absent the FDIC, insurance companies would quickly fill the role of insuring deposits absent the tragedy of the commons that comes with a government run insurance pool.
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The behaviour of national governments is simply the tragedy of the commons writ large.
Watson refers to our collective misuse of the sea as a tragedy of the commons.
Columbia's Heller talks about a "tragedy of the anti-commons, " where creative works are stifled because nobody can assemble the package of rights that make them possible.
This is a tragedy of the commons, in which sensible individual decisions have led to a collective difficulty.
Fishermen have an incentive to work harder and travel farther, which can lead to overfishing: a classic tragedy of the commons.
This, economists will tell you, leads to a "tragedy of the commons, " where individual owners, acting in their own self interests, destroy the resource.
That makes the Arctic a textbook illustration of the commons-despoiling tragedy that climate change is.
Mr Rotheram said Sir Irvine had first questioned the behaviour of Liverpool fans in the Commons just two days after the tragedy.
The commons tragedy is central to most of the environmental problems we face, from collapsing fisheries through to climate change itself.
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