Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all

A number of days ago I spoke about a concept often used in teaching political science called The Tragedy of the Commons. To illustrate, I used one of my stock examples, that of whaling. Today, I could not help but photograph another of my hoard of examples to demonstrate public policy problems, which may be more readily apparent to people the world over.

The building in which my office is located houses a number of businesses. Each floor of the converted warehouse has a small kitchenette, shared between offices. There are just three offices on the top floor, ours; a barrister/solicitor office; and an IT crowd who seems to do some sort of animation.

As one might expect, the barrister and staff are all very neat and tidy, and for the most part our lot buy their lunch and don’t really use the kitchenette. I do, however, enjoy an instant coffee on a cold morning, so regularly use the kettle. That is generally the extent of my usage.

The IT crowd, predictably, consists of a group of young, socially introverted men who happen to subsist on hot chocolate, toasted sandwiches, microwavable meals et cetera. As with many people these days (not just men), their notion of cleanliness is [ahem] somewhat different to mine.

While I am happy to fill their dirty cups and wine glasses with warm water in an endeavour to make washing them a less laborious task, I stop short of the actions of our Finance and Administration Officer, who has been known to wash all the dirty dishes completely. In a sense, this illustrates a public policy concept that will be familiar to everybody: the free rider problem.

“Free riders” are best understood as those who consume more than their fair share of a resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. The free rider problem is the question of how to prevent free riding from taking place, or at least limit its negative effects.

I would argue that Vernon washing the dishes enables the IT crowd’s free riding, and that by simply leaving the dishes they will eventually notice the costs of their free riding, and take action themselves. Of course, the community (floor three of the building) must also bear such costs at the same time.

The solution? Well, similar to the 'tragedy of the commons', “freedom in a commons brings ruin to all”. While we would all like it to be that everybody should be unconstrained to act in whatever way they feel, a laissez faire approach will inevitably end up like the picture above.

Now, we might find the solution in one of, or a combination of, a number of responses. Broadly, political science undergrads are introduced to the concepts of market, bureaucratic and community models of regulation.

A ‘market’ response might be to attach a monetary cost to negative behaviour. Thus, any office that leaves dirty dishes in the sink for (say) one day would have to pay a five dollar fine. If the dishes remain there, raise the fine to twenty dollars. Think of it as a polluter’s tax.

Of course, we will need a structure to enforce the fine. This is where ‘bureaucratic’ mechanisms come in handy. In this way, one response would be the building manager drafting a constitution that outlines the rights and responsibilities of tenants, and establishing some sort of authority to enforce the rules. If there is no authority to enforce, then the rules are a waste of time.

One response that I have tried (and failed to make headway) would fall under the broad heading of ‘community’. That is, I have tried to engender a sense of shame or guilt for leaving the kitchenette in such a state. Suffice to say that the IT crowd don’t appear to share the same sort of embarrassment or remorse as I would if I left the area in a similar state. Tut-tutting or a mournful shake of the head at the mess does not seem to have any effect.

Inevitably, most logical solutions will feature all three models. Tariffs on bad behaviour will not work without a culture that recognises the behaviour as such. Similarly, without some mechanism to enforce these sorts of tariffs, individuals and groups will continue their poor conduct.

If we somehow manage to find a solution, there will inevitably be new, unforeseen problems, let alone the expected issues that will emerge over free riding.

Lecture over, but if anyone has a solution to this particular problem, let me know, the stench is overwhelming!