The tragedy of the commons is one of those sad realities, where so many things could be made better by being shared, but humans at the end of the day will be humans. It only takes a few selfish or stupid jerks to ruin some genuinely good ideas for the rest of us.
Someone asked “What genuinely useful thing has been ruined by stupid people?” and people shared their examples. From shared amenities to just good, old public spaces, get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own experiences and ideas in the comments section below.
Someone asked “What genuinely useful thing has been ruined by stupid people?” and people shared their examples. From shared amenities to just good, old public spaces, get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own experiences and ideas in the comments section below.
#21
All the "something" sharing, car sharing/ Uber , room sharing/ airbnb, etc. A simple idea with huge potential to have a big impact in the way people use resources, all ruined by greedy people.
Report
81points
#22
Phone/mail/email
Used to be great ways of communicating. Now there's so much spam and scam communications that it's pretty miserable.
Used to be great ways of communicating. Now there's so much spam and scam communications that it's pretty miserable.
Report
81points
#23
In my city there was this bike sharing project. Amazing for students and young people. Within 3 days (3!!!) all of the bikes (F*****G ALL OF THEM) got either stolen or badly damaged.
80points
#24
Reddit. Pretty much any online forum tbh. I just want to chat about jigsaws and guitars please stop calling me names.
Report
79points
#25
Capitalism. You have a third or fourth generation of f*****g morons inheriting the company daddy built, suppressing competition and automating or outsourcing all the jobs. Then increasing prices to get an 8th consecutive quarter of record profits. Then they go get their government “loan”.
Report
75points
#26
Driving. Arguably far from ruined but has the potential to be so much safer and better for all if it wasn't for the recklessness and stupidity of dangerous drivers.
Report
67points
#27
The NHS. Deliberately wrecked by successive governments (mainly Conservative), who have destroyed our greatest source of national pride.
Report
59points
#28
Food delivery. Tried to hand my buddy cash and told him I’d pay for pizza. He couldn’t find anywhere to order from without paying first through an app. People are stupid for accepting this as the new norm. Tipping before you receive the service? Delivery drivers seeing the tip before they take a delivery is ridiculous.
Report
58points
#29
Gas cans. I promise more gas is spilled today than was ever wasted in the past with normal cans that just had a spout.
Part of the problem is how the new cans are designed. They build them for a car and they work okish for that purpose. But who uses a gas can on their car? People want to fill motorcycles, or lawn mowers, or leaf blowers, and countless other small engines with small tanks where you can't shove a weird foreskin activated 4 inch long gas spout into a tank 2 inches deep and expect it to work properly.
Part of the problem is how the new cans are designed. They build them for a car and they work okish for that purpose. But who uses a gas can on their car? People want to fill motorcycles, or lawn mowers, or leaf blowers, and countless other small engines with small tanks where you can't shove a weird foreskin activated 4 inch long gas spout into a tank 2 inches deep and expect it to work properly.
Report
53points
#31
Higher education.
Parents in the 1960s saw that a degree guarantees you a cushy and respected job with a corner office, company car, and hot secretary, so they made their kids ashamed of blue collar jobs, and pushed them into higher education.
Now the western (and probably most of the eastern) world we have overeducated population, with only so many "elite" jobs to go around, so many are underemployed.
Parents in the 1960s saw that a degree guarantees you a cushy and respected job with a corner office, company car, and hot secretary, so they made their kids ashamed of blue collar jobs, and pushed them into higher education.
Now the western (and probably most of the eastern) world we have overeducated population, with only so many "elite" jobs to go around, so many are underemployed.
Report
49points
#32
Youtube. It used to be fun and a great place to get information and entertainment.
Report
48points
#33
Bike paths, traffic calming, and pedestrian friendly design.
Us little people figured all this was a great idea and it was intuitively obvious where they’d do the most good.
Political hacks see the opportunity for glory projects, skip the obvious opportunities and areas of need, ignore local input, and blow though piles of money on reinventing the wheel (which they call “innovative” in the press release) and boondoggles in areas where there was no realistic demand or need for such amenities.
For the tiny few who do find the new construction helpful, maintenance will be neglected as the politicos set more money on fire chasing another shiny thing.
Us little people figured all this was a great idea and it was intuitively obvious where they’d do the most good.
Political hacks see the opportunity for glory projects, skip the obvious opportunities and areas of need, ignore local input, and blow though piles of money on reinventing the wheel (which they call “innovative” in the press release) and boondoggles in areas where there was no realistic demand or need for such amenities.
For the tiny few who do find the new construction helpful, maintenance will be neglected as the politicos set more money on fire chasing another shiny thing.
Report
45points
#34
Digital media in general.
TV, Internet, Video Games - other than the latter one these media can be super useful.
But practically speaking screens have just become executive dysfunction induction machines that people use as an escape to never truly start living.
Screens have stolen so many years of my life it's crazy.
TV, Internet, Video Games - other than the latter one these media can be super useful.
But practically speaking screens have just become executive dysfunction induction machines that people use as an escape to never truly start living.
Screens have stolen so many years of my life it's crazy.
31points
#35
Roundabouts. Great idea, but people can't seem to understand them. I don't know what to expect, though, when most drivers don't know what the red octagon sign means.
Report
25points