Theory Of Commons

I’ve long maintained that the most efficient management of any resource would be in the hands of the private sector. Long has it been a well foothold in the roots of Capitalism will you find it suggestive that private investment would seek and exploit the resource, however, manage its sustainability to an efficient steady state level of output, to which complete depletion would be impossible and without an alternative of ingenuity to birth and replace.

I’ve sort of abandoned this thought recently. Well, I think any person operating as an individual around resource management, with 100% ownership interest, would be a different outcome. Due to pure self interest. However, when it comes to groups managing a resource, I believe that local communities do better.

The tragedy of the commons, illustrates how nonfunctional communities can rapidly destroy their own resource base. How good, rational people can form collective destructive ambition (sometimes unintentionally), Instead of protecting their long-term future by conserving resources, they protect their short-term gains by competing, deplete their resources to the point of collapse, and bring about the failure of the community. Something seen over and over throughout history.

The tragedy of the commons describes a situation in which individuals, motivated only by their personal interest, end up overexploiting a limited resource that they share with other individuals.

I’m currently reading a book my mom and dad bought me in Tahoe about the wisdom of the Native Americans (in fact, this is the actual name of the book: The Wisdom Of The Native Americans). I find this book fascinating. It is dense with insightful droplets of Native Americans culture and their way of life. The Native Americans were experts at resource management. In 1830, there were 30 million buffalo roaming America. As more and more European’s came into America, they brought disease and their excessive over hunting of the American bison caused this massive population to dwindle down to less than 500 by 1900. Thankfully, our Federal government stepped in and aggressively took legislative measure to protect and restore the buffalo population. In 2023, we currently have gone from 500 to 500,000 in 123 years with a modest 13% on average annual growth rate.

Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth, our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor?

- Ohiyesa

Excerpt from The Wisdom Of The Native Americans, Kent Nerburn. 1999:

The old warrior got up and said, “Why we have followed this law you speak of for untold ages! We owned nothing, because everything is from the Creator. Food was free, land as free as sunshine and rain. Who has changed all this? He says he is a believer in God! He does not seem to inherit any of the traits of his Father, nor does he follow the example set by his brother Christ.”

In 2009, Elinor Ostrom, an American professor of political economics, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work into the theory of commons. Ostrom’s work highlighted that communities are not helpless in managing their shared resources, and that successful self-governance can be achieved through a combination of local knowledge, social norms, and cooperation. Her research has had a significant impact on policy discussions around resource management, sustainable development, and governance, inspiring a shift in how scholars and policymakers perceive the potential for collective action in addressing environmental challenges.

She received this prestigious recognition in 2009 for her groundbreaking research on the governance of common resources, which challenged the conventional wisdom that common-pool resources, such as forests, fisheries, and irrigation systems, were destined to be overexploited due to the “tragedy of the commons.”

Ostrom’s work emphasized that under certain conditions, communities are capable of managing common resources effectively without the need for centralized regulation or privatization. She identified a set of design principles that contribute to successful common resource management.

The overexploitation of a common resource by an individual on many occasions ends up reducing social welfare and even harming the individual who is causing this overexploitation. Even observe this on an individual level. More money does not lead to more happiness. More food leads to getting fat. The is a tremendous downfall in excess both in our physical and mental health.

Norway is doing an incredible work in developing sustainable and green efficient fish farms. Would love to see more of this.

To the contrary of Gordon Gekko, greed is not good.