[lbo-talk] The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons

[John Thornton]

andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> Hardin, like Harold Demsetz, an economist who wrote a similar and very influential article around the same time making a similar point, arguing for the superiority of private ownership, both proceed from a priori rational choice-theoretical assumptions. They don't really consider historical evidence or counterexamples. Both of them are pretty much ideologues. At the same time they have a point to make; the TotC is real in some circumstances, e.g., overfishing, and is a special instance of the general public goods problem that makes government necessary. The TotC occurs when agents act in a self-interested maximizing manner, like the actors in rational choice theory. The self-regulation the author here speaks of, or government and law, change those behaviors. So it's not that there is no TotC, it's a pervasive threat, and there have to be institutional safeguards against it.

Except places like the world's oceans which are being over fished aren't 
a commons.
A commons is an area of access that is controlled by rules generated and 
enforced by the people with access.
The world's oceans are just a free-for-all area.
It is wrong to claim that the overfishing problem the effects the oceans 
is evidence for the TofC.
The problem of overfishing is simply capitalism.
This is a difference worth noting,

The TofC is misnamed anyway since, in the absence of a capitalist 
imperative to grow, it doesn't exist.
It is really a Tragedy of Markets without Restraint.

John Thornton