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To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy it, or even to pretend we enjoy it.

Garrett Hardin

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Garrett Hardin
Age: 88 †
Born: 1915
Born: April 21
Died: 2003
Died: September 14
Biologist
Demographer
Ecologist
Statistician
University Teacher
Dallas
Texas
Garrett James Hardin
Garrett J. Hardin
Pretend
Agree
Enjoy
Even
Mutually
Coercion
Required

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Ecology is the overall science of which economics is a minor speciality.
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Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family, the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask, if we cannot trust the Bible, what can we trust?
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A finite world can support only a finite population therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
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But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.
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Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.
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The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.
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The greatest folly is to accept expert statements uncritically. At the very least, we should always seek another opinion.
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Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.
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Every plausible policy must be followed by the question 'And then what?'
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A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.
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We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply.
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Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.
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The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.
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A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality.
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Value is a relative concept: the value of each action is determined by comparing it with other possible actions.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society. It follows that any choice and decision with regard to the size of the family must irrevocably rest with the family itself, and cannot be made by anyone else.
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Numeracy: 1. The art of putting numbers to things, that is, assigning amounts to variables in order that practical decisions may be reach. 2. That aspect of education (beyond mere literacy) which takes account of quantitative aspects of reality.
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
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We see only what we have names for.
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Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the general public under frontier conditions, because there is no public, the same behavior in a metropolis is unbearable.
Garrett Hardin