Each semester, your school budgets for a certain amount of office supplies, including paper to use in the printers available in your school's computer labs. If the supplies run out, the school cannot afford to purchase more until the following semester. Students are allowed to freely access the computer labs and print out their homework or papers for class, and there is no policing of how much each student prints. The school estimates that each student will print about 200 pages per semester. If enough students exceed this limit, the computer labs may run out of paper before the end of the semester; students will then no longer be able to freely print out their assignments for class and will have to make other arrangements to ensure they turn in their work on time. This scenario describes which common problem in politics?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario describes the tragedy of the commons, where individuals have open access to a shared resource (in this case, paper in the computer labs) with no regulation or limit on usage, leading to overuse and depletion of the resource.

Each Semester, Your School Budgets for a Certain Amount of Office