The Tragedy of the Commons summary

   Garret Hardin's article discusses the fact that commonly owned resources are doomed to destruction. This is due to the fact that men are greedy, and instinctively pursue their own best interests. Given is an example involving a common pasture open to all, in which it is expected that every herdsman is going to try keep as many cattle on the commons as possible in-order to try make the most profit. However as the common is overgrazed productivity goes down causing each herdsman to add more cattle in an attempt to bring their profits back up. It is in this desire for self-interest that the tragedy of the commons arises.
   Hardin makes it clear that operating in the commons is not successful and people understand the logic of the commons because it is usually avoided. However there are still systems that operate in the commons such as National Parks, pollution, and freedom to breed. The problem is everyone views it as their right to use the parks, to discharge their wastes untreated, and to have as many offspring as they see fit, with disregard to others.
   In the pursuit of indefinite sustainability we must learn to not look at things from an individual standpoint but from a global standpoint. Unfortunately its practically impossible to get people to always think as if we were one global entity, therefore we must implicate discouragements to selfish acts such as parking in a downtown spot for a longer than necessary period of time. we do this by installing parking meters and tickets for going over the allotted amount of time. This means of control is effective because it doesn't prohibit anything but it makes it increasingly more expensive to carry out the act thus providing the person with carefully biased options which still allow the person freedoms but persuades them to do choose the morally correct one.
   I found this article to be the most effective of the three because it really opened up my mind to the idea of global consideration and thinking for the sustainability of the world as a whole along with the impacts of thinking only on a personal level.