Originally Posted by montel

""The Tragedy of the Commons" is an influential article written by Garrett Hardin and first published in the journal Science in 1968.[1] The article describes a dilemma in which multiple individuals acting independently in their own self-interest can ultimately destroy a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long term interest for this to happen."

Sound familiar?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons