The Tragedy of the Commons*

TLDR

The tragedy of the commons, illustrated by food baskets and pollution, is mitigated by private property and has increasingly been abandoned as human population grows. The study finds that morality depends on system state, that higher fertility yields greater generational influence, and that the commons are only justifiable under low population density, with bank theft analogous to exploiting a commons.

Abstract

The tragedy of the commons as a food basket is averted by private property, or something formally like it. The pollution problem is a consequence of population. Analysis of the pollution problem as a function of population density uncovers a not generally recognized principle of morality, namely: the morality of an act is a function of the state of the system at the time it is performed. Those who have more children will produce a larger fraction of the next generation than those with more susceptible consciences. Perhaps the simplest summary of the analysis of man’s population problems is this: the commons, if justifiable at all, is justifiable only under conditions of low-population density. As the human population has increased, the commons has had to be abandoned in one aspect after another. The man who takes money from a bank acts as if the bank were a commons.