Tragedy of the commons and space junk

Tragedy of the commons is a standard case for market failure. In the absence of property rights a resource will be over used and degraded. This is the core concept in environmental economics and economists have come up with all types of solution to this, including the program of "cap and trade" for carbon emissions (this is politically controversial, but pretty standard in economic theory). Here is a new example, that my really work with students who love their cell phones and the Internet). Space junk. The Free Exchange blog on the Economist web page has a great post about how space is a common resource and is becoming polluted with space junk. The problem is that too much space junk will ruin satellites that we have become dependent on for every part of modern life. Yet, because there is no incentive, nobody is seeking to protect this resource.