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Common resources and the tragedy of the commons Dmitri, Jake, and Nick are loggers who live next to a forest that is open to logging; in other words, anyoge is free to use the forest for logging. Assume that these men are the only three loggers who log in this forest and that the forest is large enough for all three loggers to fog intensively at the same time. Each yeac, the loggers choose independently how many acres of trees to cut down); specifically, they choose whether to log intensively (that is, to clear-cut a section of the forest, which hurts the sustainability of the forest if enough people do it) or to log nonintensively (which does not hurt the sustainability of the forest). None of them has the ability to control how much the others log, and each logger cares only about his own profitability and not about the state of the forest. Assume that as long as no more than one logger logs intensively, there are enough trees to regrow the forest. However, if two or more log intensively, the forest will become useless in the future. Of course, logging intensively earns a fogger more money and greater profit because he can sell more trees,

The forest is an example of ______________ because the trees in the forest are __________ and ___________.

User Messiah
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Final answer:

The forest is an example of the Tragedy of the Commons because the trees in the forest are common resources and overexploitation.

Step-by-step explanation:

The scenario with the loggers in the open-access forest typifies the Tragedy of the Commons, where common resources, like the trees, are exploited without restraint. In this case, the absence of regulation or ownership incentivizes each logger to maximize their own gain without considering the long-term sustainability of the forest. Despite the understanding that logging intensively damages the future viability of the forest, the individual loggers prioritize immediate profits.

As a result, the collective action of multiple loggers exploiting the forest's resources excessively leads to the depletion and eventual ruin of the shared resource. This situation underscores the fundamental issue with common resources and highlights the necessity for regulations or communal agreements to ensure the sustainable use of such resources.

The correct answer:

  • Tragedy of the Commons
  • Common resources
  • Overexploitation
User Choppy
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