Thanks to Cognizant’s User Community Newsletter, that I have subscribed to. Where I came across this article with a very catchy topic-“Why Warren Buffett Can't Solve Our Tax Problem”, which I couldn’t resist reading. And here I was introduced to an interesting phrase-“The Tragedy of the Commons”. Which is rather a theory, first put forth by Garrett Hardin in 1968.
So, for the busy souls, this blog is the Copy-Paste-Edit of the few excerpts from the related stuffs I read:
To start with a real-time fact: “We too want to solve the energy/global warming crisis as much as anyone else, but then we are going to keep driving, polluting, and draining finite resources because it makes our life convenient. Now, that's the tragedy of the commons.”
The Wikipedia definition says: “The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen.”
In relevance to this theory and with little statistical data, the writer of the column very well explains how “even one very wealthy man, like Warren Buffet- won’t make a dent in the hole of America’s tax problem!”
For the curious readers, can visit the link " http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/10/13/why-warren-buffett-cant-solve-our-tax-problem.aspx "
“Here's another example: No one voluntarily gives up their Social Security or Medicare benefits in the name of fiscal discipline or so to say tax benefits, even though these programs have country's finances hurtling toward misery. Not that anyone should give them up. Cashing those checks as long as they're sent to you is the rational thing to do individually. Collectively, though, it's debilitating.”
In Short, “we often rationally look after our own interests even when doing so ruins society as a whole.”
But then, “Critics ask how can it possibly be rational for a society to engineer its own ruin. Can't we see that everybody would be better off if everybody were to grab less of the common resource? The error in such reasoning is elementary.”
Well, the debate is on, and there gotta be something which we can do about it…
Hope we get into a healthy discussion on this, through comments!
