The Treadmills Of Consumption And Production Together...

The Treadmills of Consumption and Production together explain Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons. According to the textbook An Innovation to Environmental Sociology, Treadmill of Consumption theory is the process of moving materially ahead without making any real gain. In other words it is the process of consumers fighting to stay ahead of neighbors, making more money to keep buying more and better items. However, these material things do not actually bring people much more happiness or personal gain, because once the consumer has consumed, he or she needs more. In the Tragedy of the Commons, there is a common grazing land for cattle. Each farmer eventually asks himself how he can best maximize his gain, the answer; adding more and more cattle to his herd. Eventually, the land does not support the amount of cattle that all the farmers have added, and the commons area is ruined. The treadmill of consumption theory explains the first part of the tragedy well, as it explains why the farmers wanted to expand their herds in the first place. Each farmer wanted the gains that came from adding cattle, and having a large herd than others. According to the textbook, Treadmill of Production is â€Å"mutual economic pinching that gets everyone running faster but without much advancement†, tending to only escalate production and push aside any concern for the environment. Treadmill of Production in the Tragedy of the Commons explains why the farmers continued to add cattle to their herds to the