A Journal Article Review of

The Tragedy of the Commons

By: Garrett Hardin

People as a normal human being shared their resources to satisfy and attain their needs. However
it is also innate for the human beings to have self-interest that will benefit themmore which lead
to conflict and misunderstanding or worst resulting to chaos.
Garrett Hardin's idea of "The Tragedy of the Commons" pertains to the population problem that
he discloses no technical solution if and only if there is an extension of morality in the entire
humanity.
Hardins paradigm to the herdsman, who acted rationally and independently according to their
own self-interest, brought many cattle as possible to graze them in a pasture that is open for all
had a positive and negative component according to him. The positive component expounded
was that adding one animal to his herd will give to him a benefit but the negative component was
each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons means that each individual will have a
tendency to exploit the commons to his/her own advantage, typically without limit therefore the
commons is depleted and eventually ruined.
Commons in laymans term which means conventional or general isthe ability of a person to use
a specific property in free that is not privately own opens for all. In this article of Hardin
commons define as the shared resources of the peoplesuch as public land where people are
inherently self-serving and also pertains to any property that is not own by anyone so that
everyone is free to avail.
The main issues of the tragedy of the commons werefirst; the population problem wherein he
investigates the relation between the populations to the resources concluded that the population
must be under control.We can't both maximize the number of people and satisfy every desire or
"good" of everyone.The more people there are, the less each person's share must be.Second is the
pollution problemthat is the consequence of the population in a way wherein the larger the
human population the more polluted the surrounding is.Just like Adam Smith's laissez-faire
doctrine of the invisible hand tempts us to think that a system of individuals pursuing their
private interests will automatically serve the collective interest. The remorseless and tragic result
of each person thinking this way, however, is ruin of the commons, and thus of everyone using it
becauseindividuals are short-term, self-interested "rational" actors, seeking to maximize their
own gains based on him. Lastly is the gaining peoples' consent to a system of coercion.
Freedom is the recognition of the necessity marked the conclusion of Hardins review
specified thatpeople will assent if they understand the serious consequences of letting the
population growth rate be set only by individuals' choices.In other words, something must keep
under control like individual reproduction."Coercive" restrictions on breeding could take a
number of forms.No technical solution can rescue us from the misery of over-population but
sacrificing freedom to breed will obtain for us other more important freedoms which will
otherwise be lost.Then various restraints and incentives for low reproduction can and must be
generated.
Educating all people about the Tragedy of the Commons, its consequences, and the alternatives
to it, is necessary and thats what Garret Hardins commentary wants to imply.