The Miracle Of The Commons

link:: https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth tags:: #article, #tragedy of the commons, #commons, Aeon published:: May 4th, 2021

• #tragedy of the commons is a false and dangerous myth
• Quotes
  • Even before Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons was published, however, the young political scientist Elinor Ostrom had proven him wrong. While Hardin speculated that the tragedy of the commons could be avoided only through total privatisation or total government control, Ostrom had witnessed groundwater users near her native Los Angeles hammer out a system for sharing their coveted resource.
  • The features of successful systems, Ostrom and her colleagues found, include clear boundaries (the ‘community’ doing the managing must be well-defined); reliable monitoring of the shared resource; a reasonable balance of costs and benefits for participants; a predictable process for the fast and fair resolution of conflicts; an escalating series of punishments for cheaters; and good relationships between the community and other layers of authority, from household heads to international institutions. id:: 63bafe44-85ea-4d9b-a9fb-2e57801f9399
  • Hardin compared wealthy nations to lifeboats that couldn’t accept more passengers without sinking. #scarcity mindset
  • Hardin died in 2003, but the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, alert to the longevity of his ideas, maintains his profile in its ‘extremist files’ and classifies him as a white nationalist. id:: 63bb0219-6555-48f1-bb0b-a236ccc06cee