Cohousing-L Mailing List: self interest VS what's best for everybody/apology (fwd)

[Cohousing-L listmgr (fholson]

Judy <BAXTER [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu> wrote the following but due to
Murphy it needed a little help from Fred to be reposted.

* FIRST a Note on "rejected messages": 
* At least the "real name" field doesnt say "Fred" on 
* these reposted messages anymore! Also listproc returns most messages
* that were previously rejected so you'all can repost many of your own
* rejects.  As usual for real problems write me but now write me at 
* owner-cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  (BTW listproc was the software's 
* real name back at uci but 3 years ago "listserv" seemed better.)

####### Judy wrote: ########
Rob Sandelin wrote:
>need to deal with issues where self interest of individuals bumps 
>against what is best for the whole group.  

My only thought is to think about the "tragedy of the common's, Garrett
Hardin's famous  piece about villages with common grazing land.  for the
individual, it was always a small loss of quality in grazing to add an extra
sheep, so the commmons was overgrazed and useless to everyone.  Hardin's
solution (he was basically talking about overpopulation) was to make agreements
among the group to protect common resources. I think the concept is very
useful, and the tragedy, alas, very common.

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community,(MoCoCo) Twin Cities Area, Mpls.,MN
-- e-mail:      baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu
-- Resident of the "mansion"- the 1st 8 homes in a rehab Georgian building built
as a retirment home in 1924 - developing 15 new legal condos - look like
townhomes, on the property
---The 1st 7 new townhouses are done! - and occupied, one is rented for now
 Voice Mail for Monterey Cohousing - 612-930-7554