ABSTRACT
Market proponents argue that people are more likely to take care of what they own personally, and that commonly owned goods would be better looked after if they were in private hands: ‘people who litter in public parks and public thoroughfares do not, in general, dump trash in their own back yards’ (Seneca & Taussig 1984: 85). They argue that environmental degradation occurs because of incomplete ownership of rights to use valuable resources. These environmental resources have traditionally been owned in common by everyone (or, one might say, owned by no one individual).
