Tragedy of the commons

Self-interests causing depletion of a shared resource

The tragedy of the commons is the concept which states that if many people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource such as a pasture, they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether. Even if some users exercised voluntary restraint, the other users would merely supplant them, the predictable result being a tragedy for all. The concept has been widely discussed, and criticised, in economics, ecology and other sciences.

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