Managerial Economics 12th Edition by Mark Hirschey

Exercise 4

In the 1880s, cattlemen in the American West crowded more and more animals onto common grazing land to feed a growing nation. Cattlemen contended, "None of us knows anything about grass outside of the fact that there is lots of it, and we aim to get it while the getting is good." Explain this attitude as a manifestation of the tragedy of the commons, and discuss how to solve the problem. Does resolving the cattlemen's dilemma of the 1880s suggest how the world today can save the African elephant?