> That is how the problem of choice looks from a consumer perspective, but
> there are other perspectives as well. One can chose to spend society's
> resources on trivia, such as fashion, dumb tee-vee shows, or life style
> drugs - instead of putting them to alternative, and I dare to say, more
> productive uses. From a strictly consumerist perspective this can be
> reduced to the sum of individual choices, but that is also a reductio ad
> absurdum, as the "tragedy of the commons" clearly illustrates.
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Um, the 'tragedy of the commons' was really the tragedy of privatization/expropriation/rent-seeking. See Michael Perelman's "The Invention of Capitalism" and some of the essays by Patricia Marchak [an expert on the political economy of deforestation]. I guess you already have Elinor Ostrom's work. Surely you don't by the Locke-Hardin apologetic drivel?
Ian