Paging John Nash
John Nash was the economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics for his research in game theory. Game theory addresses situations where collusion is not possible, and where each participant gains individually by undertaking behavior that harms the other participants, but all participants gain by engaging in "socially useful" behavior.
The classic case is the Prisoner's Dilemma. Two accomplices in a crime are interrogated separately. If both confess they will each get 5 years. If neither confesses, both will get one year. If one confesses and the other does not, the confessor will go free and the other will get 10 years. You can see that each is individually better off confessing regardless of what the other does, but together they are better off remaining silent.
In many cases where a deal opens up, each person using it will have only a slight incremental impact on the likelihood of it being closed, so they would gain by taking maximum advantage. Yet if everyone abuses it, it will be closed that much more quickly.
Any experts on game theory out there to figure out the solution to this? (And you all thought that obscure branches of economics weren't meaningful to your everyday lives.)