Tragedy of Commons?

In reality Tragedy of Commons only happens in capitalist countries. Which points to the problem.

There's a story told in many versions about how traditional economics works. It was told to me by some Nepalese in the form of some fishermen who always caught 2 fish every day. Sometime they would catch them quickly but sometimes it would take a whole day to catch them. The fishermen are questioned. On the day when the fish are common why don't you catch as many as you can and then sell them for profit. The fisherman simply says he doesn't need them.

That story perfectly illustrates why Tragedy of Commons has only emerged as a problem in Capitalist countries. The idea of working not for what you need but rather for its own sake to accumulate capital has switched human behaviour towards unlimited exploitation. Human life has ceased to have any meaning, it is just production and consumption for its own sake. For the fisherman fishing, the way of life and the actual quality of the fish they catch all having central meaning to their lives. They are after all fishermen: that identity is central to their lives. What is the Capitalist other than a machine for accumulating more capital.

So security is probably the most important issue here. The Capitalist is secretly anxious and insecure. They accumulate capital in a vain attempt to fend off the day they have nothing. But it is a self generating anxiety. In a country where everyone is desperately trying to accumulate infinite capital for themselves there is huge competition, and resources are fought over. If you don't fight you lose. This causes the very anxiety that drives desperate resource accumulation. So Tragedy of Commons is actually self generating. The moment you don't trust other people and think they will start exploiting a resource is the moment you start thinking how to exploit it. The very idea of Capitalism is itself the tragedy.

Does Population Matter?

Population Matters is a charity that addresses concerns about population growth. When I was 13 I awoke to these concerns when I divided the Earth land by the population. At time of writing it is 1/16km2 (255m2).

This 1/16 of a km must supply all our food and resources we will need in our life and any children we produce (else we steal from someone else).

So we have the population concern whose illustrious worriers include Sir David Attenborough. 

https://populationmatters.org/news/2018/10/05/sir-david-attenborough-we-must-act-population

But the world is unequal. A person in the US uses twice the resources of someone in the UK. If everyone on the earth lived like people in the UK then all the world's resources would be used. Not everyone can like like an American. But if everyone lived like a Nepali then only 1/50 of the Earth resources would be used.

If we all lived like Nepalis then we could expand the human population 50 times! Population is not the problem. The problem is that Nepalis want to live like Americans, and Americans don't want to live like Nepalis.

I've explored this throughout this blog so won't go into detail here but the Americans are wrong not to want to live like Nepalis and the Nepalis are wrong to want to live like Americans. It is especially ironic for Nepalis because a true Nepalis shouldn't even be listening to US propaganda. They have their own guru Siddhartha Gautama of the Shakya tribe. I don;t remember anywhere Siddhartha extolling the virtues of expensive living. Indeed he said that such behaviour leads to suffering!

Death sweeps away
The person obsessed
With gathering flowers,
As a great flood sweeps away a sleeping village.
...

As a bee gathers nectar
And moves on without harming
The flower, its color, or its fragrance,
Just so should a sage walk through a village.

[Dharmapada: Flowers]

As Buddha says the world is there to be enjoyed, but we do that enjoyment lightly without collecting, storing or being drawn to the objects of pleasure. The Capitalist or the person desiring what they do not have has only death awaiting for them. All this in reality are empty, they have a coat of perceptions added to them by the mind from which they are almost imperceptibly different. Anyone very skilled in meditation who can develop a suitably subtle mind will be able to see the difference between Nama and Rupa that is Name and Form, and see the process of the mind upon the void of emptiness. Those who pursue these illusions are like dogs chasing their tails, wrapped up in a world of fruitless activity. Such is the world of Capitalism that consumes the world's resources.

So to those with an ear close to the ground the problem is not population. It turns out to be a fundamental error in how the West thinks that leads to Capitalism and all the associate problems. There are reasons that these problems have arising in the age of Capitalism and not before!