Politica

How does the tragedy of the commons demonstrate the need for a basic and continuing economic role for government?
The involvement of the government is necessary to ensure that the rules ofthe game are followed. However, in a real democratic society, people can and should be active contributors to ideas that will be fair and strive to seek balance for a sustainable market.Christian Felber, an Austrian professor of economics at the University of Vienna, got together with 15 Austrian companies who were looking to come up with an alternative to the profit andcompetition driven system that controls corporations. They created “ The economy of the Common Good” which “tends to be a form of market economy. However, the driving entrepreneurialmotivation will shift from the pursuit of profit towards the pursuit of the common good and from competition to cooperation. In The economy of the Common Good it is not just money that matters, butthe ECG Balance Sheet. Companies.” (http://www.common-welfare-economy.org/) Success will be measured by the amount of social justice, human dignity, ecological sustainability, solidarity,and democratic determination and transparency. Each criteria met will be awarded with points for a maximum of 1000, and a different color bar codes will be given to each company depending ontheir position on this matrix. To give the companies advantage and prevent the tragedy of the commons, many incentives (such as lower tariffs, better loan conditions. etc.) will be given tocompanies with ethical practices. Also, consumers will be able to scan the code and find out more info about the company.
There are many interesting modifications to this proposal,including limititions of the use of financial profit, and inequalities of income. Today, over 900 companies in Europe and Latin America have become a part of this “Economy of The Common Good”.