We can easily replace this example with uncontrolled
fishing, ocean dumping and atmospheric pollution. This idea of the commons is
traced back to Sir William Foster Lloyd, a professor of Political Economy at
Oxford in 1832. This fact is mentioned by Garrett Hardin in his scholarly book
on “Filters against Folly” (Penguin Books, 1985).
In addition to learning about the original source of the
idea, I also noted two other points in this book.
1. Garrett Hardin defines Economics as an ego-based discipline and naturally, it
deals with how to maximize the economic return to the individual. Just by the
nature of the discipline, concern for others, fairness and compassion are
not in its domain.
2. The etymology of the words “economics” and “ecology”
leads us to the Greek word Oikos,
meaning home or household. “The first word (economics) deals with the accounts
of the household of human beings, while the second word (ecology) ranges over
all living things”. (page 70)
Now, oikos has
become a “corporate” brand name for yogurt!
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