Group items tagged

This article talks about how owners of rare artworks are exempt from paying inheritance taxes as long as they allow viewing access to the public. This is somewhat an inverse of the tragedy of the commons where instead of restricting the usage of the "commons", the government encourages allowing more access to the commons. The main reason for this would be because artworks have cultural significance.

Interesting how artworks have been worth so much money and are a private good by ownership, but still are available to the public.Take any museum, its artworks are all privately owned, but have been determined to be part of our culture that cannot remained unseen. It must be public for reasons of conservation.

The article is a special example of a common good, as it gives us an example of a private property that is now going to be opened to the public. Lisa and Leon Gorman, the prior owners of Lane, an island near the mouth of the royal river in Yarmouth, have donated their private property to the Main Coast Heritage Trust. The Island formerly being a private hunting territory shall now become accessible to the public. It has been recognized as an "ecologically significant site" and shall now become part of Royal River which is being restored and protected. A long-term management plan is being developed, which includes the economic vitality as well as the significance of ecological protection of the Island and its surroundings. Although in a slightly different scenario, this article could give us an example of Elenor Ostroms theory of effectively sustaining resources through a self-motivated community.

Trying to protect Brazils forests is a difficulty. Logging cannot be stopped due to common access to the amazon. Farmers make use of the forests until they maximize their utility, causing negative externalities. River banks are ednagered by erosion and wildlife loses its inhabitat. The new Laws by the government are not good enough to prevent logging and support sustainability.

This article in "The Economist" discusses differing arguments that support the idea that different radio frequencies should either need to be reserved, and thus be a form of private goods, or be common access resources that could be used by everyone. A specific example that is discussed is the American Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which manages the private reservation of radio frequencies. Overall, I found this interesting as it discusses a new common resource that has arisen due to a development in technology.

INTRODUCTION Constitutional historians and lay-persons alike would be alarmed if the United States Government seized five pages of the New York Times in an attempt to increase public access to the media. This adverse reaction would stem from the ...

This article from the guardian retells the UN's findings of how the oil industry (which operates on common access resources) is harming the Amazon (another common access resource)

This article by the American Heart Association talks about how important and vital defibrillators are in saving someone's life and how the public good should be more accessible.

This article looks at whether education is a public or private good arguing that through education people are able to benefit society and that it should therefore be a public good, so in some senses, it isn't.

This article describes three major "tragedies" inflicted on the Great Plains of the midwestern United States. The near-extinction of the bison population, the destruction of the grasslands, and the current issue, the massive drilling and oil fracking. It details the repercussions of these tragedies, including a major reduction in its biodiversity.

This article focusses on Stephen Hawking's view of the NHS. He believes it should not be privatised as health care is crucial for the public. He talks about his own experiences and how he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and without the NHS he wouldn't be alive today.

This article talks about how China plans to cut the quota of cotton imports so that the demand of cotton can increase domestically. The reason for this is to boost the demand for domestic fiber.

This article outlines the reduction of a measure of protectionism (quotas) on a commodity, in order to benefit from higher productive efficiency of the international markets. The greater access to the commodity cotton is meant to enable domestic producers of textiles to significantly increase production, a key industry in China.

This article talks of the results that happened in Cuba when they abolished all private property rights and turned to communism. This eventually led to the collapse of the Cuban economy. The article mentions, "On the eve of the Cuban Revolution about 80 percent of Cuba's arable land was under cultivation (or used for grazing) and domestic production supplied 70 percent of the country's food consumption." Over grazing of the fields led to similar tragedy of the commons.