1. Tragedy of the Commons

The Tragedy of the Commons argument is that shared resources tend inevitably to be overused and ruined. But that isn't what really happened with the historical commons in England. This video explains the Tragedy argument and some of its flaws.

The English Enclosures is a follow-up to this video.

Recommended Reading:

Garett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons"

Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action

Ian Angus, "The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons"

You may copy or modify this video under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike license.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• economics
• history
• commons

[Tlavi]

@oneyaker: As a matter of fact, there have been successful commons fisheries. Traditional communities on the east coast of Canada, for example, long managed shared fisheries successfully. But after the government imposed a more market-based system without regard to existing traditions, they succumbed to overfishing and collapsed. This is just one case described by Elinor Ostrom in her book Governing the Commons.

[Tlavi]

@oneyaker: You confuse evidence with theory, then apply theory indiscriminately. Ocean is not pasture. Understanding begins not not with adherence to logic and ignorance of context: but with evidence of what actually happened.

The commons were not ruined by sharing: because in the vast majority of cases they were not ruined at all. They were dismantled by acts of Parliament. And profit was not simply a motive; it was part of a transition to an entirely different society and economy.

[Tlavi]

I've cited sources, daPlumber702, at least one of which (Ian Angus) is freely available online. My video about the enclosures provides further historical detail and relevant citations.

[daPlumber702]

first off. Saying that the peasants couldn't maximize their profit because they didn't use a money system is just plain wrong factually. They did. Second it's wrong conceptually. Even if they didn't use money there's still a profit motive. Number of livestock for instance.

The biggest problem with your little video here is that you're making things up. quite sad really.

[professornuclearbomb]

Funny, I believe the Tradegy of the Commons proves that the free market isn't all what is put up to be.

[FakeScottTimcke]

@Tlavi, do you intend to turn these six videos into a playlist?



[oneyaker]

So in the same line of logic, the fisheries are being over fished so that they can fail and the oceans can be subdivided into private plots? The conclusion is illogical to fit the answer you are looking for. The motive does not matter (did not the overgrazer have profit motive?), the commons were ruined as the final result BECAUSE it had no private protection. The resource is overused and ruined if and only if it can be accessed as a freely shared resource.

[shahanakaz]

great work........

[CtLionel967]

Thanks for this vid! My science teacher recommended this vid and it helped me to study for a test! So thank you.

[daPlumber702]

@professornuclearbomb how so? bad logic was used to come to that conclusion. You should check your premises.

[bbhattnishant]

Concise and clear