Tragedy of the Commons: There Ain’t no Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Tragedy of the commonsTragedy of the commons has leverage points that are effective if and only if all stakeholders obey them. Yet this creates a profound dilemma for all stakeholdersStakeholders because those who do not act according to the leverage points are temporarily rewarded. A department that continues to use more and more support from the IT departmentIT department while other departments refrain from doing so will perform better than all other departments until the IT department’s support collapses—causing problems for all departments. A fishery that continues to fish more and more while other fisheriesFisheries refrain from doing so will make more profit than all other fisheriesFisheries until the stock of fish collapsesMarket collapse—causing financial disaster for all fisheries. A social systemSocial system that continues to use more and more resourcesResource while other social systems refrain from doing so will be economically better off than all other social systemsSocial system until the resources are depleted—causing severe crises for all social systems. Such a social system is a free riderFree rider because it receives a benefit while the associated costs have to be paid by all social systemsSocial system using the same resourcesResource—possibly much later and by later generations than by those who caused it.