ABSTRACT
In the last few decades, shortages of both manu-factured and natural resources have become increasingly frequent and severe. Dwindling fossil fuel deposits, electrical brownouts, depleted
fresh water reserves, and the unavailability of clean, breathable air are all symptomatic of less than optimal use of scarce public resources. Each of these scarcities represents an example of
Hardin’s (1968) “tragedy of the commons,” a specific form of social interdependence in which the long-run consequence of self-interested individual choice is disaster.
