• chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    Isn’t tragedy of the commons just how companies will always dump their toxic waste in the river if nobody stops them

    • lugal@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      That is one application of the idea. Most people use the concept to privatize commonly owned or state own things which ironically leads to companies that destroy rivers and stuff. There is research on which criteria make a common work and it’s not surprising that the ownership model that was predominant for a long while actually work despite the fact that some white guy had a thought experiment and said it can’t possibly work.

      • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        I think it’s kind of frustrating if it’s seen exclusively as a pro privatization slogan since I don’t know of another shorthand way of referring to the inherent challenges of managing shared resources, even if the person who coined the term was using it to argue for privatization.

        • lugal@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          I mean it’s not wrong to use it that way but please consider the research into solutions of these challenges