All Posts Tagged With: "tragedy of the commons"
Regulatory Failure by the Numbers
Between the current financial mess and the debate over carbon dioxide emissions controls, there is a lot of talk about regulation these days. We are told, for example, that the recession would have been prevented if proper regulations had been in place. While it is true that (by definition) the “right” regulations would have prevented [...]
25Aug2010 | and Robert L. Bradley Jr. | 5 comments | ContinuedScience Fiction and Economic Fiction
Thomas Macaulay Boudreaux, age 12 and my only child, is a huge fan of Star Trek. Actually, even an italicized “huge” doesn’t quite capture the extent of Thomas’s fascination with, and knowledge of, the franchise. From Captain Pike through Mr. Spock to Ensign Sato, Thomas knows and loves anything and everything Star Trek. So in [...]
23Oct2009 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 4 comments | ContinuedHow the Western Cattlemen Created Property Rights
During the last third of the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs created a vast open-range cattle industry in the Great Plains region of the United States. During the War Between the States, when Texas had been cut off from free-flowing commerce with the rest of the country, huge herds of cattle had built up on the state’s [...]
1Mar2005 | Robert Higgs | 0 comments | ContinuedThe World Is Dying, So Tax the Rich?
In a September 2, 2002, op-ed in the Washington Post, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan sets out what he believes should be the world’s agenda for the next century. He says we face “the twin challenges of poverty and pollution,” and that if we are to end the “wanton acts of destruction and the blithe [...]
1Jan2003 | James R. Otteson | 1 comment | ContinuedWhy the Poor Need Property Rights
Early in the morning the streets below my flat would become a beehive of activity. Small stands were scattered everywhere, cramming every available inch of sidewalk. Small bundles of bananas, packets of tomatoes, or potatoes were for sale. Newspaper vendors grabbed the busy corners. Hawkers with every imaginable product had set up business. As the [...]
1Oct2002 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Economics of Ecology: Angry Planet or Beautiful World?
“The bright promise of a new millennium is now clouded by unprecedented threats to humanity’s future.” -WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE, 20001 “We know that the environment is not in good shape. . . . My claim is that things are improving.” -BJØRN LOMBORG2 Bjørn Lomborg is a Danish professor of statistics who was an environmental activist and [...]
1Sep2002 | Mark Skousen | 0 comments | ContinuedTragedy in the Judicial Commons
If you think that people who have been exposed to asbestos have the right to sue asbestos manufacturers for damages . . . or that individuals exposed to mercury or lead should be able to sue . . . or that everyone who has been X-rayed by doctors or dentists should be able to sue [...]
1Aug2002 | David N. Laband | 0 comments | ContinuedRegulating Biodiversity: Tragedy in the Political Commons
David Laband teaches natural resources economics and policy at the Forest Policy Center in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University. Last summer, lightning struck and killed an enormous pine tree on one side of my backyard. At about the same time, voracious pine bark beetles girdled and killed an equally impressive [...]
1Sep2001 | David N. Laband | 0 comments | ContinuedA Mad Scramble at 30,000 Feet
Edward Lopez is an assistant professor of economics at the University of North Texas (elopez@econ.unt.edu, www.econ.unt.edu/elopez). Airlines have been taking it on the chin lately. Travelers are busier, delays are likelier and longer, airports are bursting at the seams, and FAA complaints have doubled. Last summer Andy Rooney stood up for all travelers on his [...]
1Feb2000 | Edward J. López | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Berry Bikes: A Lesson in Private Property
Daniel Alban is a senior with an interdisciplinary major at Berry College, in Mount Berry, Georgia. Frank Stephenson is an assistant professor of economics in Berry College’s Campbell School of Business. Berry College is a private college located on a large campus adjacent to Rome, Georgia. In March 1998, the Berry College Student Government Association [...]
1Oct1999 | and Daniel L. Alban | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Commons: Tragedy or Triumph?
In the summer I watch ruby-throated hummingbirds fly and hover near a feeder that my wife, Dot, carefully fills with nectar and hangs in view of our kitchen window. The store-bought nectar is colored red, since people think that hummingbirds find that color attractive. Business around the feeder picks up following rains that wash away [...]
1Apr1999 | Bruce Yandle | 9 comments | ContinuedTo Each His Due
Tom Bethell is the author of The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages (St. Martin’s Press, 1998), from which this article is excerpted with permission of the author. Copyright © Tom Bethell. We lead lives that are so immersed in private property that we easily take its benefits for granted. Some everyday situations [...]
1Mar1999 | Tom Bethell | 0 comments | ContinuedOn Airports and Individual Rights
Tibor Machan teaches ethics in the school of business at Chapman University. His latest book is Generosity: Virtue in Civil Society (Cato Institute). For a couple of years, Orange County, California, has been buzzing with controversy over what to do when the El Toro Marine Air Base is closed. The question on everyone’s mind is [...]
1Feb1999 | Tibor R. Machan | 1 comment | ContinuedLaw, Custom, and the Commons
Dr. Simmons heads the political science department of Utah State University and is a senior associate of PERC (Political Economy Research Center) in Bozeman, Montana. Free and unregulated access to scarce resources has long been recognized as a serious problem. Two thousand years ago Aristotle wrote: “What belongs in common to the most people is [...]
1Feb1997 | Randy T. Simmons | 0 comments | ContinuedHow Fishing Communities Protect Their Future
Donald R. Leal is a senior associate of PERC. More examples of community-run fisheries can be found in his paper Community-Run Fisheries: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons (September 1996), published by PERC, 502 S. 19th Ave., Suite 211, Bozeman, MT 59718.) At the beginning of this century, violence periodically erupted among the community of [...]
1Feb1997 | Don Leal | 0 comments | ContinuedOn the Need for Social Coercion (excerpt)
Mr. Huemer is a graduate student in philosophy at Rutgers University. He was Third Prize winner in the 1995-1996 Olive W. Garvey Fellowship. A copy of his full essay is available on request. Editor’s Note: In his paper, Mr. Huemer argues that social coercion is unjustified in attempts to solve the tragedy-of-the-commons problem both because [...]
1Jan1996 | Michael Huemer | 0 comments | Continued-
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