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Author Topic: Hey Mark......the tragedy of the commons.  (Read 2478 times)

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Tom Foppiano

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Hey Mark......the tragedy of the commons.
« on: July 28, 2011, 04:51:25 PM »

Hello Mark. On the "sex on the beach" show, you repeatedly referred to the tragedy of the commons. While, you and I generally agree that people probably shouldn't have sex in public, it had little to do with the tragedy of the commons, as I understand that phrase.

The tragedy of the commons is basically a concept used to describe resource depletion in the absence of private property. An example would be a national forest where all of the young deer are shot prior to their becoming trophy bucks. Because no one really owns the land, no one has an incentive to not kill young deer. Each hunter says to themselves, "If I don't get it now, someone else will."

Another good example one of econ professors used was a giant bowl of beer. Imagine a college class of 100 kids surrounding a giant bowl of beer with 100 straws. The beer would likely be slurped up in minutes. Again, because no one single student has an incentive to ration the resource (beer). If, however, every student had their own individual beer(s), a longer time horizon would likely be employed.

I definitely don't think that I am emperor of economics terms, so I'd love to learn more if you disagree.
Thanks
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MacFall

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Re: Hey Mark......the tragedy of the commons.
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2011, 09:08:39 PM »

You're right that it was originally constructed to refer to the suboptimal employment of unowned resources, but you could look at the concept as having two applications: one economic, the other ethical. In ethical terms, the tragedy of the commons aptly describes a situation in which it is unclear who has the right to control a resource.
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Cognitive Dissident

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Re: Hey Mark......the tragedy of the commons.
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2011, 06:51:12 AM »

Yup, it's also commonly referred to when people trash up the "public," as with litter, graffiti, vandalism, and so forth.  The basic idea is that "when everyone owns it, it's treated as if no one owns it," and the reason comes down to property rights.  If people actually did "own" public property, in a meaningful way, it would be treated better.  The worn out example is how a place like Disneyland/world is kept immaculate by its property owner, even though it's a "public place" by the government's loose definition (I.E., open to the public, they have to treat people according to the Civil Rights Act, ad nauseam.)
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Tom Foppiano

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Re: Hey Mark......the tragedy of the commons.
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2011, 02:13:18 AM »

Yup, it's also commonly referred to when people trash up the "public," as with litter, graffiti, vandalism, and so forth.  The basic idea is that "when everyone owns it, it's treated as if no one owns it," and the reason comes down to property rights.  If people actually did "own" public property, in a meaningful way, it would be treated better.  The worn out example is how a place like Disneyland/world is kept immaculate by its property owner, even though it's a "public place" by the government's loose definition (I.E., open to the public, they have to treat people according to the Civil Rights Act, ad nauseam.)

Agreed.
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hellbilly

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Re: Hey Mark......the tragedy of the commons.
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2011, 07:31:07 PM »

Just a bit of info- Disney World (that's the FL one) goes a little beyond just public property, the company is sort of it's own County. There are two "towns" in WDW each with a mayor and all - City of Bay Lake & Lake Buena Vista. The latter is where many Disney employees live, which kinda makes them county residents.. and the only taxpayers in these cities is the Disney company itself. They even generate some of their own power & can legally build & operate a nuke facility if they chose to.

I don't understand really how it all works, but the "government" runs under the name Reedy Creek Improvement District.

(I geeked out on Disney stuff a couple years ago & can't shake it!)
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