The "Tragedy of the Commons": true or false?

[bean fidhleir]

In Africa, many people are now using a powerful pesticide made by FMC in the US to poison the big cats that prey on their herds, and the fan-out is disasterous.


(Lioness dying of the poison in the Maasai Mara)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7460008.stm

The ones doing it see their herds as being important in a unique and separate way, and feel no responsibility at all for the common wealth (other species, land, water, etc).

So does that mean that the "tragedy" theory is correct, or is it backwards? Should more wealth be in private hands, or less?

[baldguy]

1. What they don't realize is that lions are a part of the commons.

As a matter of course, individuals in the herd will become diseased and/or crippled. These individuals threaten the health of the herd. Big cats will take them when the farmers won't.

If they remove the big cats, then the farmers must take responsibility to do what the cats did naturally - thereby devoting more time, more energy & more money to managing the herd.

Somehow, I doubt that will actually happen.

[Bucky]

2. I don't see the question.

You give a perfectly valid example of the Tragedy of the Commons. That doesn't mean, however, that more wealth should be in public hands. The lesson of the Commons is that you need to have a strong public sector looking out for the common good and protecting shared public resources.

What causes the Tragedy of the Commons is when people in the private sector fail to pay for what economists call "social costs." In a just society, this would be seen as a form of theft and proportionately punished. Polluting the ecosystem with pesticides harms everybody and the polluters ought to pay the cost of repairing the damage.

But of course to get this done you need a strong warden of the commons, which in Africa frequently you do not have.

[BrklynLib at work]

3. HEY! This planet was made for mankind to plunder and use as it will.

Who cares about the rest of the inhabitants...they are just here to serve us!! If they interfere with what we want, they should be destroyed. Big deal!!! They are not as important as man. Right!!!??

:sarcasm: :nuke: :grr: :mad: