Remembering Elinor Ostrom

"...Professor Ostrom’s prizewinning work examined how people collaborate and organize themselves to manage common resources like forests or fisheries, even when governments are not involved. The research overturned the conventional wisdom about the need for government regulation of public resources...."

"Ha, ha. For that she won a Nobel prize? Everyone knows you need the government to help organize lives!" Paul Krugman.

There's no room for such extreme discourse! 

"Traditionally, economics taught that common ownership of resources results in excessive exploitation, as when fishermen overfish a common pond. This is the so-called tragedy of the commons, and it suggests that common resources must be managed either through privatization or government regulation, in the form of taxes, say, or limits on use.

Professor Ostrom studied cases around the world in which communities successfully regulated resource use through cooperation. Her work has important applications for climate change policy today."

Coercion to achieve cooperation! Coercion to achieve cooperation! Repeat!

Progressive heads explode.