Economic essay

Example in Media

South park and Water Parks

Topic: Tragedy of the Commons

Thankfully, the real world is cleaner than South Park!

If you have ever been to a water park or community pool, you know that the staff checks the pH of the water regularly to make sure it is clean. However, in a 2009 episode of South Park everyone is peeing in PiPi's water park. The resultin pee concentration ends up bein g so high that it triggers a disaster-movie-style cataclysm, unleashing a flood of pee that destroy the place.

Why did this happen? Becuase each person looked at all the water and thought it wouldn't matter if he or she peed in it. But when everyone thought the same way, the water quality was affected. This led to the tragedy of the commons, in which the overall water quality became degraded. Pee-ew