Maybe the abuse could be limited, if the exploitable commons is connected with something you have to pay for. For example, imagine that you provide free water. Then there is a risk that some asshole will just let the water flow freely, just because they can, or because they are excited by the idea of abusing the system, or just because their water faucet broke and they don’t bother fixing it. Such an asshole could create potentially unlimited damage.
On the other hand, imagine a system where you pay for water, but you get the cold water converted to hot water for free. Even if there is a similar asshole in this system, who on principle uses hot water even when they really need cold water, their damage is limited, because although they don’t pay for the heat, they still have to pay for the water, so their budget for water limits the damage. -- At the end, even if you know you have one such asshole and you cannot stop them, using this system could still be cheaper for everyone. So, estimate the ratio of sociopaths in your society, and see if the project still economically makes sense.
Maybe the abuse could be limited, if the exploitable commons is connected with something you have to pay for. For example, imagine that you provide free water. Then there is a risk that some asshole will just let the water flow freely, just because they can, or because they are excited by the idea of abusing the system, or just because their water faucet broke and they don’t bother fixing it. Such an asshole could create potentially unlimited damage.
On the other hand, imagine a system where you pay for water, but you get the cold water converted to hot water for free. Even if there is a similar asshole in this system, who on principle uses hot water even when they really need cold water, their damage is limited, because although they don’t pay for the heat, they still have to pay for the water, so their budget for water limits the damage. -- At the end, even if you know you have one such asshole and you cannot stop them, using this system could still be cheaper for everyone. So, estimate the ratio of sociopaths in your society, and see if the project still economically makes sense.
That’s an excellent point! Lets just do some maths:
Water cost here is $2.00/m3
Cost of heating 1000 kg of water 20-->60 deg with gas@ $0.02/MJ: ~4010004*.02/1000 = $3.20 (this is central, individual would be abt double)
So the cost of heating is not far from the cost of water… I think this could work.
Thanks, I will try this and see how it turns out. Might report back in a month or so!