Chapter 7:The Tragedy of the Commons

The Tragedy of the Commons is a scenario created by William Forster Lloyd (1794-18520 in which all farmers equally share a grazing field and limit the number of cattle they each raise due to poaching, tribal wars and disease. However, after social stability is reached one farmer begins to consider raising more cattle to make more profit. This is reflected by the other farmers until the fields resources are consumed and the farmers now cannot raise any cattle. Another issue brought about by the Tragedy is pollution. The idea is that every person who dumps waste finds it cheaper to forgo purifying the waste beforehand. The concept of Freedom to Breed and how it is intolerable as it leads to over population. The author then states that we should openly deny the validity of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights statement where all decisions of family size rests with the family itself, never outside. The chapter then goes on with may examples supporting the idea that people should be free to have all the children and resources they want, but that it should be made very expensive so as to discourage "overuse". There are other political suggestion such as trying to ensure the most able bodied and intelligent in the family inherits the most of their parents estates and resources. Essentially this chapter supports the "dog eat dog world" to an extent coupled with the idea that the world should not section off and divide the land and resources up but have everyone share it so as to show the world how one person can impact many others. A "rise together fall together" world.