The Tragedy of the Commons

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The Tragedy of the Commons

• Garrett Hardin

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Why are we talking about population?

• The population problem is only one of the
  problems that can be classified as a Tragedy of
  the Commons (TC).

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Isnt this Business Ethics?

• TCs occur when we dont internalize
  externalities. Understanding TCs is important
  to understanding how to solve environmental
  problems (that businesses are involved with) and
  remember that property law might be (at least
  partly) justified because it helps solve such
  problems.

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Population Problems have no Technical Solution

• Hardin argues that the population problem has no
  technical solution - one that only requires a
  change only in the techniques of the natural
  sciences nothing in the way of change in human
  values (Hardin, 331).

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The Population Problem

• Resources are limited and population will grow
  exponentially. That means that an individuals
  share of the goods will steadily decrease. There
  is no way to increase our quality of life and the
  number of people indefinitely.

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Will Population Stabilize?

• If we want to maximize the good per person we
  have to find a way to balance and weigh different
  values, something we cant seem to do very well.
• Some argue that if we had found a way to do this
  our population would reach the optimal level and
  stabilize.

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Response

• The assumption that this will happen (that
  growing populations are not at the optimal level)
  is untenable, as the fastest growth is in the
  most miserable populations.

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Conclusion

• Hardin argues that the population problem is a
  Collective Action Problem -- a multi-person
  Prisoners Dilemma (PD).
• It is in each persons interest to have many kids
  but this spells collective doom.

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What is the Tragedy?

• Lets play a game and find out! You are the
  doughnut farmers.
• Lets divide into six groups each group gets to
  decide how many doughnuts it will put out to
  pasture this winter. You will get all of the
  doughnuts that you put out to pasture back in the
  summer unless some of them die from over
  population.

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?
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The carrying capacity of the field is 18
doughnuts

• If 19-25 doughnuts are at pasture ¼ will die.
  You will then receive ¾ of your flock back. If
  26-30 are put out to pasture ½ will die (you will
  get ½ your flock back). If 31-35 are put out to
  pasture you will get ¼ of your flock back. If
  more than 36 are put out to pasture you will get
  no doughnuts back. Your decisions will be kept
  confidential. Please write the number in your
  flock on a piece of paper and return it to me.
  

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?
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The Tragedy of the Commons

• So we just saw what happens in the pasture
  scenario individuals get nearly all of the
  profit from overuse, the costs are mitigated
  amongst all. Often total utility declines.

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Lets see how you reason about this!

• Would you ever put out 36 doughnuts ?
• How many would you put out if everyone else put
  out 4?
• What would each individual do if that individual
  wanted to make the total number for everyone the
  largest?

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Solutions?

• There are several options. For example, we could
  abolish the commons and use private property, or
  we could create laws or contracts to allocate
  entrance rights for doughnuts. It would also
  work if everyone cared about the welfare of the
  doughnuts (or cows) or cared about the collective
  good!

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A Reason to be Good?

• Acting ethically (in the common interest) not
  only benefits animals and the environment, but it
  can benefit you too (in more ways than one)!

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Easy to Say but

• How can we get people to care about the
  consequences of their actions for the community?

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Im in favor of games myself

• Lets play another
• This time well play the doughnut farming game
  but everyone gets to see what each group chooses
  to contribute.
• If that doesnt help you get some doughnuts,
  well play a few other games where you get to
  choose who to share a pasture with!

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?
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Lets try making a deal

• This time there are three pastures (two groups
  per pasture). Their carrying capacity is 7
  doughnuts each. If 8-11 are put out to pasture ¼
  die, if 12-14 are put out ½ die, if 15 or more
  are put out they all die. You have two minutes
  of negotiation time at the end of which you must
  write down the size of your flock and give me the
  sheet. Whether you make a deal (and whether you
  keep it!) is up to you (you dont need to write
  that down)!

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Imagine what would happen if

• I agreed to play cop.

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What if we made the pastures private?

• Property rights can work, but lets look at a
  realistic scenario. Normally you sell cows for
  profit. Suppose you can raise three fat cows and
  get a buck for each of them. If you have 4 cows
  they end up a bit skinnier and only fetch .95
  each. 5 cows (skinnier still) fetch .90 each, 6
  .85 ea., 7 .80 ea. etc. How many cows would
  maximize profit?

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But What About the Cows??

• It might be that very sick cows still fetch a
  market price and that having a ton of sick cows
  makes you richer than having a handful of healthy
  ones. Would you still want to maximize your
  profit?

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• Some people still do. If you want watch a movie
  and see what this looks like (at its worst) in
  the real world go to http//meetyourmeat.com/wycd
  .html

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There are many PDs

• Consider the pasture scenario individuals get
  nearly all of the profit from overuse but the
  costs are mitigated amongst all and total utility
  declines.
• Each individual thinks rationally that she should
  add more cows until she cant make any more
  money, but the outcome for society might be very
  bad.

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Pervasive!

• Hardin notes that the Prisoners Dilemmas exists
  in oceans, national parks, western ranges and can
  even happen in small town parking meters.
• Cheating or being dishonest is often like this
  It would be better for all if no one did it but
  it seems completely rational at the time for the
  individual or business

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Consider Pollution

• This is also a Prisoners Dilemma -- The costs of
  wastes discharged in the commons are mitigated
  amongst all, the benefits largely retained by the
  disposer.

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Solutions?

• We cannot easily privatize the air and waters,
  besides privatization may also lead people to
  feel like they are entitled to do whatever they
  want - that is undesirable (case of the stream
  that is partly owned).
• Coercive laws and taxes may work better.
• Moral norms might work here too.

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What this Case can Teach Us

• Another thing to note is the context of actions
  matters a lot pollution on the frontier was not
  as harmful as it is now. We need flexible laws.
  A lot of knowledge about the total system is
  important.
• But administrative laws (bureaus) are open to
  corruption it is difficult to legislate
  temperance.

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Applying these Lessons to the Case of Population

• Our society has taken away natural constraints on
  breeding by mediating dependence on resources.
• We need incentives/punishments to change the
  individual good to that of the collective good.

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Solution?

• Hardin argues that we need to hold people
  responsible for the consequences of their choices
  through taxes or punishment.
• He thinks we need Mutually agreed upon coercion
  (Hardin, 338).
• Consider the bank robber case.
• Even if such a system is unjust he thinks it is
  preferable to the commons.

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Alternatives

• Many people think that we do not need to
  legislate freedom to breed. They think we can
  reduce population in less coercive ways.
• Perhaps we can use education?

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Education

• He doesnt think so he thinks conscientious
  people would eventually be out-bred by
  non-conscientious people.
• One possible response is that conscientious
  people might also be better able to adapt to
  society and thus survive for other reasons.

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More about Education

• He critiques appeals to responsibility that are
  not enforced as patronizing propaganda.
• But, since Hardins time we have discovered
  education actually works well. Womens education
  in particular is highly correlated with
  population reduction. Population growth rates
  are slowing and often this is done without
  coercion!

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Final Worries

• In fact, one might even wonder if the population
  problem really is a Tragedy of the Commons.
• Is it in the interest of women in developing
  countries to have many kids? Getting a kid isnt
  like getting a doughnut. If people have other
  options they wont necessarily want a ton of
  kids.

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Lessons

• What is nice about Hardins article, though, is
  that it illustrates a common problem that we face
  both as individuals and when we work with
  businesses.
• Sometimes what is rational thinking
  individualistically does not produce the best
  results collectively.

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Morality may be an Important Part of the Solution

• We can use privatization mechanisms, tax
  incentives, contracts and other coercive laws to
  prevent TCs. But if we learn to care about each
  other, animals, and the environment like (most of
  us) care about our families and friends, we can
  also cooperate to avoid TCs.  

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Strange Huh?

• Often we can all do better (by our own lights!)
  when we aim for the collective good.

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Did you know they also farm Emu?
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Summary/Conclusions

• The commons if justifiable at all, is
  justifiable only under conditions of
  low-population density. (Hardin, 339). We need
  to use privatization mechanisms, tax incentives
  to control waste disposal, and moral or legal
  constraints to prevent Tragedies of the Commons.
  We may even need such constraints/incentives in
  controlling noise pollution, advertising etc.
   Learn to recognize PDs and know how to avoid
  them.

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Summary of Potential Solutions

• Voluntary Cooperation
• Transparency/reputation
• Communication/Education
• Moral Norms
• Enforced Cooperation
• Contracts or other laws
• Private property.

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Questions for Consideration

• What is a prisoners dilemma? Where do they
  occur? Create an example.
• Do you think coercive laws are ever justified?
  If so why? Are there better options? Is
  education better? Why or why not?

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Further Questions

• How is context important to laws? How do we make
  laws precise (suggest three ways)? What are some
  of the problems with pollution laws?
• What is a collective action problem? What is the
  population problem? What is a technical solution?