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THE TRAGEDY AND COMEDY
OF THE COMMONS!
András Takács-Sánta
A tale of the tragedy of the commons
Once upon a time, beyond the beyond, there was a small village. Outside it was a
pasture rich in grass for any villager to use for free. There were twelve cattle herdsmen
in the village, each with a cow. Every morning, the cattle were driven to grass and
brought home for the night. That's how they lived for a long time, modestly but happily.
The cows gave milk abundantly and not only the families of the herdsmen but everybody
in the village had a good share of milk, butter, cheese and cottage cheese.
One day, a new herdsman moved into the village, who pondered: “Everyone has a
single cow, what if I bought two, there is enough room on the pasture, and I would
make more profit than the other twelve. I could sell the milk in the neighboring village
where the pasture is not so good.” The act followed the thought, and the next morning
fourteen cows were grazing in the pasture. Another farmer grew envious of him: “If the
new neighbor has two cows, why can't I have another one? He is right. Two cows yield
more and the family will live better. Besides, if I don’t put another cow to grass, the
rest will pocket the profit that could also be mine.” Soon fifteen cows were gorging
themselves on the grass of the pasture.
And so on and on it went. Soon, all thirteen herdsmen were thinking in the same
way. The process could not be halted and soon they all had two heads of cattle each,
then three, then four and then five. Other villagers also took note of the lucrativeness
of cattle farming, so seven of them entered into animal husbandry with five cows each.
Soon a hundred cows were grazing the pasture and the herdsmen were selling their
produce far and wide, away from home. They made extraordinary profit, and their
kith and kin lived in formerly unimaginable abundance.
Had it been up to the cattle farmers, the number of cows would have kept increasing,
but that was not to happen. After fair weather came the storm. The pasture was no
longer so green and lavish, and soon it became quite barren as the cattle herd devoured
the grass faster than its pace of regeneration. The cows lost flesh and fell ill. The herdsmen
obviously noticed the deterioration, but they felt helpless: each of them thought that if
he alone reduced his number of animals, that would be insufficient for a solution, and
eventually he would be disadvantaged alone. This is how the tragedy was soon to come:
all the cattle perished, the herdsmen went broke, and their families starved.
! Based on Takäcs-Sänta (2017) with minor modifications.