Principles of Microeconomics / Unit 12 MIC 1115 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Common Resources and the Tragedy of the Commons
Captions available
The idea
A common resource is nonexcludable and rival. Each user takes while it pays, ignoring the loss to others, so the resource is overused. Hardin named it the tragedy of the commons in nineteen sixty-eight.
In practice
Anyone with a mask can take a conch; mine is not yours.
Where people slip
Economists read it as a property-rights problem: no owner, so nobody with reason to conserve.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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