Public goods are resources that all people are freely allowed to enjoy. They can be everything from public parks to clean air. Clean air is free for everyone to enjoy and use, therefore some believe they may do whatever they want to the air. If polluting the air benefits someone or some corporation with no consequences, they will continue to do it to maximize profits. If only a few instances of this occur, no one may be harmed, but if many cases of this happen, the amount of cl

In conclusion, collective action problems have plagued our society for years. They are more a problem of morals than an immediate physical problem. If people as a whole would follow the rules set out for them, collective action problems would not exist. It is capitalism’s economic policy however, that corrupts our society. It tells people to maximize their profits at all costs. Even at the cost of their own public goods. This is strictly a result of the nature of capitalism, and the nature of man.

ean air will be depleted. The “tragedy of the commons” is that these public goods, these free resources, have limits and are vulnerable to overuse (Hardin, p. 36).

It is the attitude that one person’s action won’t affect a large group. If everyone shares this same mentality, then whatever public good is being used will be destroyed and instead of minimal use, there will be no use. The actual wording of maximizing individual profits almost spells out disaster for some other entity. The pie is only so big, if one person maximizes their share, others must loose. The long-term effect when public goods are concerned is that all will loose their pieces of the pie. When the free resource that everyone depends on is no longer available, the pie disappears.

Collective action can best be described as a group of people working toward a common goal. Interest groups and other organizations are formed to further the goals and ideas of the members. “The attraction of group membership is not so much in sheer belonging, but rather in attaining something by means of this membership” (Olson, p. 4). The collective goal of a group, for example the Sierra Club, would be to help the environment in any way possible. Individuals themselves can do little, but as an organized group of people, they have much more power.

Some topics in this essay:
, Shepsle Bonchek, National Parks, Sierra Club, Transferable Quota’s, John McQuaid, Nelson Mandela”, collective action, factory owner, economic markets, private sector, clean air, collective action occur, maximize profits, pollute stream, nature capitalism, whatever public, free resource, person trying obtain, maximizing individual profits,