So there's this idea in economics - the Tragedy of the Commons. It goes like this:
There's a pasture for everyone in the village. Each farmer can put one cow in the pasture, and then there's exactly enough grass to support each farmer's single cow. Let's say we have ten farmers, ten cows, and a pasture that supports ten cows.
But Farmer Bob decides one day that he wants to pasture an additional cow on the pasture. Now there are 11 cows eating feed that's only enough for 10 cows. Everyone loses a little bit, but Farmer Bob gains on his neighbors.
So, because fair is fair, all his neighbors put an additional cow on the pasture too.
BOOM. 20 cows can't live on only enough grass for 10. Nor can the pasture replenish itself quickly enough. So the pasture dies. Then all the cows die. Then, presumably, the farmers die too.
So that's the original Tragedy of the Commons story.
The modern one is playing out across the world right now. Jump the fold with me to see what it is.
Let's say we have ten businessmen. Each of them hires ten workers. We have a hundred workers. Each worker draws a paycheck.
Each businessman can sell one unit of whatever it is he makes to one worker. Each businessman produces one unit per worker he has. So we have a hundred units of stuff sitting there waiting to be purchased by workers.
One day, Businessman Bob fires half his workers but demands that the remaining five produce two units apiece, for the same pay. Now there are still 100 units of stuff, but there's only 95 workers who can buy the stuff. But Bob now has an oversupply, so he sells it more cheaply and makes a little more money, since his overhead is now reduced.
The problem is, when all the other businessmen fire half their workers too (because they see Bob getting richer while they're losing market share), then there's only 50 workers trying to buy 100 units, and they can no longer afford it. On that pay scale, each worker can still only afford one unit apiece, and the ones who aren't working anymore can't afford any. So, either the units get sold more cheaply, or they don't get sold at all. As more people lose their jobs, more units go unsold. Businessman Bob and his fellow business dudes can hold some supply back in order to create false demand, but they still can't jack the price up so much that none of the workers can afford what they're selling (not when half of them already can't and their wages have stagnated). Eventually, the businessmen realize that their real turnover of product - their actual sale numbers - - has dropped from 10 units to 5 units because nobody can afford it anymore. Or, rather, the half of the available consumers they fired can't consume anymore because they no longer have incomes, and the remaining half are trying to get by on the same income they've always had.
The modern commons is the pool of wealth and income that the worker has available. It's what enables him to be a consumer as well as a worker. The tragedy of the modern commons is that Businessman Bob does not remember that his workers are Businessman Miguel's customers, and his customers are Businessman Miguel's workers. Every time a corporation fires a worker, they've just eliminated a consumer. Eventually there are no consumers (or not enough to support the system) and the businesses collapse. (This is what Marx meant when he said that capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction.)
They've forgotten the wisdom of the boom years: to sell to this population, you also have to pay this population. You can't pay people in India to do labor that belongs here and still have Americans able to buy what you make. Where are you going to sell your products? Who will buy them? Central parts of any business plan, but the 1% seem to have forgotten it.
This is the tragedy of the modern commons. Hopefully the 1% is getting the message - and here's the message:
Dudes, those aren't just your ex-workers out there with the signs and the shouting. They're your ex-customers, too - the lifeblood of your businesses. Maybe you should think about that. Think about it real hard. And after you've thought about it, you should get up off your asses and hire back those workers, and pay them a living wage instead of a pittance. (And don't tell me you don't have the money when you're sitting on a trillion bucks of bailout cash, mmmkay?)
Or you could go out of business. That's always an option, too, I suppose. That'd really show those dirty rotten hippies, now wouldn't it?
EDIT #1: Wow, the Community Spotlight? Thank you, folks!
EDIT #2: WOW, the REC List? THANK YOU, FOLKS! :D