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Tragedy of the commons
Individuals use shared/public resources in their own self interest, degrading them
-must be in public not private
-must be degraded, overused, depleted
Ex: overgrazing, overfishing, water & air pollution, overuse of groundwater
Why does TOC happen
-When no one owns the resource (land water, air) no one directly suffers the negative consequences of depleting, degrading, or overusing
-people assume others will over use the resource if they don’t and there’s no penalty for these actions
Externalities
Negative cost with a humans action that aren’t accounted for in the price (unintended side effects)
Ex: pollutions from a factory
Problem with TOC
-over fishing can lead to fishery collapse
-air pollution from coal power plants can lead to bronchitis, asthma, increased healthcare cost
-pesticides runoff from farms contaminate water
How to solve the TOC
-privately land ownership (individual or government)
-fees or taxes for use
Ex: permit system for grazing, logging
-taxes, fines criminal charges for pollution or shared air/soil/water resources
Ex: clean air act, clean water acts safe drinking water act, bureau of land management
