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Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species

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
Nature
Equations
Economist
Satisfied
Develop
Species
Dangerous
Potency
Free
Hubris
Others
Economists

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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.
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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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But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.
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In an approximate way, the logic of commons has been understood for a long time, perhaps since the discovery of agriculture or the invention of private property in real estate.
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Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
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Ecology is the overall science of which economics is a minor speciality.
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People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.
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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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You can never do merely one thing. The law applies to any action that changes something in a complex system. The point is that an action taken to alleviate a problem will trigger several effects, some of which may offset or even negate the one intended.
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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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Thou shalt not transgress the carrying capacity
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No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.
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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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Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.
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The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.
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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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In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable
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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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Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.
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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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