The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.

Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.

What features of your daily life do you expect to be improved by a further increase in population?

The rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another . . . But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit — in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.