“The ‘tragedy of the commons’ arises when it is difficult and costly to exclude potential users from common-pool resources that yield finite flows of benefits, as a result of which those resources will be exhausted by rational, utility-maximizing individuals rather than conserved for the benefit of all. Pessimism about the possibility of users voluntarily cooperating to prevent overuse has led to widespread central control of common-pool resources. But such control has itself frequently resulted in resource overuse. In practice, especially where they can communicate, users often develop rules that limit resource use and conserve resources.”

-Elinor Ostrom

The tragedy of the commons is an economic theory of a situation where individual users are self-interested and gains by consuming shared resources, ultimately depleting said resources without care when population and utilisation reach high enough levels due to collective action. This is important to us in Singapore, as overpopulation can lead to:

• inflation of costs of living
• traffic jams, transport inconveniences
• degraded infrastructure as it is unable to cope with the increase in population
• high competition for adequate education
• an overall worsening quality of life for residents