My video lecture, part of the Business Ethics Cases series.
Contents:
1. What the tragedy is.
2. The free-market solution.
3. The socialist solution.
4. Comparing the two solutions.
The entire video (43 minutes total):
Supplements:
* Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons”, Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
* Transcript of the above video lecture [HTML] [PDF].
* Summary flowchart of the arguments [jpg] [pdf].
* Elinor Ostrom, “Ending the Tragedy of the Commons.” The Nobel-Prize-winning economist explains how, with proper governance, humans are capable of finding peaceful solutions to the problem of resource scarcity.
Go to the Business Ethics Cases series. Full playlists at YouTube.
Go to the Philosophy of Education lecture series.
Go to the StephenHicks.org main page.
Just finished watching this four part lecture: breathtaking in its luminous, trenchant simplicity. Quietly cuts to the heart of the root socio-politico-economic issues of our time, spotlighting the central fallacies of Marxist and far left environmentalist’ economics.
One minor thing that might be added is that if the lazy cow owner’s animals or land are causing direct harm to those of his neighbors’ they would also have legal remedies available to prevent and redress harm e.g. the law of nuisance.
This lecture demonstrates yet again that socialism necessarily entails compulsion. I think of a brilliant analogy of a friend (J. K.) who compared the premise of regulation to hijacking a bus – only to take it on its normal route.
(In case you think I’m laying the kudos on too thick my friend also has a saying, “I don’t want to inflate your ego, but I think you’re God”).
Also, if self-interest is evil, socialists succeeded admirably in their war against it by eliminating all beneficiaries except those with the severest pathologies. In the 20th century, philosophically, morally, politically, economically, psychologically and physically their war of annihilation against the self had been relentless. The Holocaust was not a failure but a triumph of their ethic.
You mention the possibility of lawsuits earlier implied by legal rights and limits, hence perhaps the legal remedies I mention are a given.
Thanks very much, Ed. I appreciate the praise.