Imagine a pond full of fish. There’s a group of fisherman who all live around the pond and rely on the fish to survive. You’d think that the fisherman would all work together to make sure they don’t overfish the pond. But that doesn’t happen––each person eats more fish than they should and, as a result, the pond runs out of the fish and they all go hungry. This is called the tragedy of the commons. People work against the interest of society in order to further their own interests, which actually screws them over in the long run.
video by: TED-Ed
video by: TED-Ed