Communism equals Tragedy of the Commons

I am slowly grinding my way through the book "The Little Ice Age". I can honestly say that I am reading it at a glacial pace.

I am at the point where the author is writing about the quantum leap in agricultural productivity that allowed the urban population to explode and provided the labor for the Industrial Revolution.

The primary enabler for that huge leap in productivity was the elimination of "the commons" through the Enclosure Act. That is, the Enclosure Act eliminated the public ownership of the pasture and woods in favor of private ownership. Why would that make a difference?

Capital Improvements

Most of the land that was held in common was not prime farm-land. It was what was left over after the best lands had been put under the plow. Much of the left-over land was land that was flood-prone marshland and boggy soils. The concepts of ditching and draining were well known but there were no economic mechanism outside of some monasteries where the benefits of the venture could be equitably shared in proportion to the vast amounts of labor required to make it happen. Lacking such a mechanism, ditching and draining didn't happen.

The famous "Chalkstreams" of England are drainage ditches through bogs that were dug by monks. You can see in this image that the level of the field rises slightly as it approaches the stream.

Once those marshes were fenced in, enclosed, the owners of the fields would receive the entire benefit of the ditching, diking and pumping. And ditch, dike and pump they did.

Inbreeding

In the mid-1600s there were only about 15 "breeds" of dogs in extent: scent hounds, sight hounds, mastiffs, herding dogs and so on. In a similar way, there were land-races of cattle and sheep that were multi-purpose. That is because, lacking fences, any intact male animal could and would breed any receptive female of the same species. The infrastructure was not in place to scientifically breed for specific goals like more milk production or air-scenting game birds.

Once fencing/hedges were in place, a farmer could select for better wool or more milk and since he didn't let the livestock outside of the fence, his neighbors had to pay him for the breeding privileges. As the number of recognized breeds increased, so did "fairs" and ribbons and awards.

At the time of this writing, the American Kennel Club recognizes 202 breeds of dogs.

Husbanding the soil

Another positive impact of the Enclosure Act was that if a farmer planted a specialized fodder crop during a parcel's fallow-cycle, then he could feed livestock on the parcel as the soil recovered.

He could plant red clover and perennial ryegrass, for instance, which not only broke the disease cycle for small grains but it produced excellent hay for animals, nectar for honeybees AND it fixed nitrogen in the soil. That contrasts to the dog's breakfast of (often unpalatable) weeds like smartweed, amaranth, chenopodium, thistles and foxtail grasses that volunteered in the common fields during the fallow period.

By intentionally planting the best species, the farmer was able to harvest crops of hay and honey AND he was able to recharge the soil with nutrients in two years instead of five. That simply didn't happen when all of the cost would be levied against the innovator yet everybody in the village got an equal share of the benefit.

Tragedy of the Commons

Garrett Hardin wrote a short monograph that he titled "Tragedy of the Commons". 

He sketches out the "Prisoner's Dilemma" logic that inevitably leads to over-exploitation of shared resources like The Commons.

In five sentences:  If there are six families sharing the commons and if each family has one milk-cow, then each family gets the benefit of 1/6th of the forage growing in the commons. The first family to add one more cow gets 2/7ths of the benefit since they own two of the seven cows grazing. Each family, in turn, makes similar decisions. Soon there are 12 cows grazing a pasture that comfortably supported six. In a very short time, the grass is grazed down to the roots and all 12 cows are starving. 

Summary

All of these seemingly unrelated bits of information weave together and demonstrate why Communism is doomed to fail. It failed in The Commons. The economic gains from the great Enclosure are reversible. California, multiply blessed by the Creator with great weather, great harbors, oil, minerals, fertile soil, great universities and strategic location...it turned into a Sh---ole country over the last three decades. Chicago did two. And now New York.

If such abundantly blessed states and cities are eviscerated by a failed economic system (Communism), what hope do locations less blessed then them have if we embrace it on a national scale? 

I guess we are going to have front-row seats.