ABSTRACT
The basic argument began from an image of separate, individual actors, each seeking to maximize returns on profit from their input of labor. In other words, it began with the classic homo economicus model of humans that informed orthodox economic theory at various times in the past. Hardin took his beginning from a much earlier work, dating to 1833, by a mathematician called William Forster Lloyd. Hardin next asserts that every herder will try to graze as many cattle as they can on this shared common land. Hardin builds in his next assumption that each herder is “a rational being” and will therefore try to maximize his gains. Hardin provides a number of examples where such freedoms lead to trouble, and one example is quite telling. He points out how the indiscriminate dumping of waste and the pollution of the environment can be seen as an example of the misuse of the commons.
