Objects and subjects of commercial relations are potential commodities (commodity, object, product, and brand). However, there is a social life of objects, inherent to the process of commoditization and to the evolution of the commodity sphere. The Tragedy of the Commons argues against certain forms of public goods as vectors of resource depletion and the consequent rush to commodified private goods. I examine the mechanisms that lead to the commoditization of a previously public and/or non-market good.