The Future as a Commons: Capitalism and an Ecologic Tragedy in Time
Hardin showed that a growth maximizing economy in a world with finite resources would simply annihilate the natural stocks on which it depended for growth, even while each individual was acting in a rational manner. It gives lie to the perversion of Adman Smith’s Invisible Hand that conservatives use to justify unconstrained capitalism.
The Tragedy of the Commons is a tragedy of this time and this place. Pastures, resources, clean air, a living climate – each is consumed by our current actions, and the consequences take place in the near term.
