More Visitors Trampling Jeffco Trails
“Too many people… are a big problem.”
“Too many visitors… is causing damage to trails.”
Friends, this is the problem of “public property.“
If you aren’t familiar with the term “Tragedy of the Commons,” then click here to see how the Mises Institute explains it.
Case in point, shared resources such as public trails, “owned” by the county, are used by too many individuals, thus degrading the quality of the trails.
According to CBS Denver and some guy they interviewed, this is happening in Boulder and Jefferson counties.
You see, when everyone has access to a resource, there is little to no sense of ownership over that resource by the people using it, which means there is little to no incentive to maintain the quality of that resource.
Not only that, but the idea of how best to use that resource is not necessarily shared by all those using it.
This is called, the “Tragedy of the Commons.”
Who is to say whether the trails are being degraded?
Well, in a society in which individualism is valued, we would ask the owner of such trail as to whether that trail is being degraded or not.
Living in our current world, we don’t really know whether the trails in Jeffco or Bouldco have become less valuable now with more people using them, than they were with less people using them previously.
Why don’t we know whether the trails are less valuable with more people than with less people?
Well, it’s because value is subjective.
Think of it this way, if an individual, or a private organization owned the property these trails are on, they would have their own subjective idea on what exactly makes these trails more or less valuable.
An important thing to be aware of is that just because CBS and some guy agree that these trails are being devalued because more people are using them, is an entirely subjective argument.
If I owned the trails, I might be happy to see more people using them.
In particular, I could have more people donating to maintain the trails (if I setup donation boxes), or I could have more customers who are able to buy items at my shop (which I would locate at the base or top of the trail).
If I owned the trails, I might be happy to see more people hiking, knowing that I could have more customers or donors.
The reason CBS and the guy they interviewed don’t like people using the trails is because their idea of value lies in the fact that the trails are spaces in which they can experience nature.
That’s great, who doesn’t love to experience nature?
But, my point is, that’s their subjective idea of what they want out of the trails.
There are many other ideas as to what makes the trails valuable.
I hope this helps explain the idea of subjective value.
And, I hope this explains the idea of the “tragedy of the commons.”
Please let me know what you think in the comments below!
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