User:Steels12/sandbox

Tragedy of the Commons
The tragedy of the commons is an economic and ecological resource theory that posits if every individual with access to a given resource has both incentive to use said resource and no limitations, eventually said resource will be diminished to the detriment of everyone involved. It was first coined by British economist William Forster Lloyd in 1933, and later popularized by American ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968 following the release of his eponymous article. The theory highlights the dangers of individuals driven by self-interest, unfettered by socially established rules of engagement for a particular set of resources. Hardin uses the example of herdsman considering the cost and benefits of maximizing the amount of cattle they have, wherein they believe their actions to be acceptable as the cost of over-grazing is dispersed over a wide resource, and thus the cost to any particular individual is fractional.