3 ms·

When I return something, I feel I'm contributing to the tragedy of the commons - I know I'm still paying for this return, it's just baked into the price. I wish

• komali2 1y ago
  If it helps you feel better, the "tragedy of the commons" isn't a natural law, it's a highly debated topic that was somewhat re-invented by an economist and then coined in the modern era by an ecologist discussing the pamphlet by the economist, in which it's argued that unfettered access to "the commons" will lead to the common being destroyed. What's missing from the regular usage of the term is the fact the pamphlet was written immediately the enclosure movement had subdivided the literal Commons - common land - that had functioned perfectly fine for centuries without over exploitation... until the enclosure movement subdivided them and landowners began over-exploiting them. The lesson isn't that people can't be entrusted with unfettered access to common goods, it's that giving decision making power over the distribution of a common good to an owner (capitalist) will result in over-exploitation. In the case of returns, the price of the good has way more to do with the seller just getting the price up as high as they can get it and still profit, and far less to do with labor costs, manufacturing costs, shipping costs etc. A simple question: if they could sell it for more and make more money, why wouldn't they? If they could sell it for less and make less money, why would they? Hence why the cost of goods stayed up after the chip crisis despite the chip crisis ending.