The document summarizes Garret Hardin's influential 1968 publication "The Tragedy of the Commons". It describes how allowing open access to a shared resource, like a pasture, leads rational individuals to overuse it for personal gain, ultimately destroying the resource. While frequently cited in favor of privatization, the article has received criticism for historical inaccuracies and for mischaracterizing the issues as issues of common rather than open access. Later, Hardin clarified he was referring to "The Tragedy of the Unmanaged Commons".