Well, I guess that depends on who you ask.
As things turned out, a fairly pessimistic scenario obtained, with a critical point of 2. Since the class's average "consumption" level was 4.2, the class as a whole faced some serious consequences -- a deduction of two points from the points each individual chose.
The "economic" impact of this was, as might be expected in the real world, spread unevenly. As the table at right indicates, several individuals accumulated fortunes that allowed them to realize a significant overall growth in their wealth despite the costs of exceeding these environmental limits. One individual in fact managed to enjoy a very lavish lifestyle indeed. Most people suffered a significant loss of wealth. Though they still retained enough wealth to enjoy a lifestyle not too far diminished from what they experienced in their childhoods, the outcome was far from their dreams of prosperity. Alas, two individuals had failed to establish significant personal wealth to bear these costs, and were wiped out (or nearly so) by the costs of your collective excess. Unfortunate to be sure, but no one forced them to choose the sort of lifestyle that would leave them so vulnerable. We can hope that they found other sources of support, or at least satisfaction, in choosing to lead lives so far out of the economic mainstream.
However you care to judge these outcomes for your own "society," clearly your collective actions have passed some real problems on to future generations. As there is no way of thinking how the kind of excesses you have produced would simply disappear, it would seem that future generations would be facing a much harsher dilemma than you. But who could've known it would go this way? As they say, que sera....
So did you as a "society" handle this dilemma well? Depends on who you ask, and on the kind of "world" you want to live in. Collectively, you certainly acted as every group of students I have done this with have acted. In the real world, do we as a society handle this dilemma any better?
Your comments are of course encouraged, and we can spend a bit more class time criticizing assumptions built into the game, etc. But let me say once again that the lesson here is NOT that these reflect the real odds of the dilemma. If you want to know that, go and inform yourselves about the actual issues. Rather, what I hope you come away from this with is a realization that, in the real world, every choice you make about consumption -- large and small, conscious or unconscious, voting, buying, using, re-using, disposing, etc. -- takes place in a context of such a dilemma, and will have consequences not just for you, but for society as a whole, for individuals in other societies, and for future generations.
1 comment:
I believe that we have acted just as our current society acts. We tend to push for the good of the whole, but act according to what is best for the self. I am not criticizing this but it clearly creates significant difficulty when attempting to change the course of society. Westerners are self-centered and when it comes down to it we worry only about how we get along. As an anecdotal example I will take a short tangent. My parents acted in this way over last Christmas break. Our family was in the process of renovating the house and they were being "environmentally conscious" by installing better insulation, better heaters, a better air conditioner, etc. However, when it came to disposing of the old air conditioner and dehumidifier, they were reluctant to pay the disposal cost associated with Freon, and simply left it them in the basement. My point is such: my parents were happy to act on behalf of our society by spending more to upgrade our house. Yet they selectively chose to spend money on items that would save money in the long run, and reluctant to spend it simply for the good of the environment (where no immediate benefit followed the expense). So despite having good intentions when it came down to it, my family decided that our own personal wealth was worth more than saving the ozone layer. I am suggesting that the same logic applies to most individuals in our society and our behavior as a class.
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