By By Hope Elena Sardella
Reference: Van Belle, D. (2016). A Novel Approach to Politics, 4th Edition. Sage Publishing.
The Tragedy of the commons is the understanding that resources in a social network such as small towns must provide remedies as a community, which leads to a myriad of socioeconomic issues. Additionally, the tragedy of the commons has a unique characteristic in Greek classic understanding as being avoidable only if the individuals do not realize that they are using fewer resources. One example of Tragedy of the commons is the apparent struggle to shift society to living more sustainable. Because we are a capitalistic society, there is an element of consumer choice to choose not to use plastic vs bringing your bag or selecting products from sustainable sourced material. Although this concept may seem like a no brainer in a society where less sustainable products are more expensive than sustainable products, the trend of companies offering non environmentally friendly products, services, or amenities makes the “sustainable future” a losing battle as we can see from the preceding example that the idealistic perceptions of how America is going to jump on the environmentally friendly bandwagon “for real, for real…”. To attempt to resolve this Tragedy of the comments, I would say that it’s going to take a massive push from the federal government to force the industry to get with the program.