The Tradegy of Commons

From what I can gather "The Tragedy of the Commons" refers to the problem of over population, and the destruction of natural resources based upon economic growth. I may be completely wrong, but the way I see it is like this. Lets take estuaries of Southern Florida for example. A individual contractor may see this as unused real estate that could be better used to build condos, golf courses, the whole nine yards. So that particular contractor is willing to sacrifice the local ecology, the benefit of the swamps being a carbon sink, local fishermen, etc, for his personal gain in the short-term, as opposed to thinking about all the long-term necessities of the previously mentioned attributes. I think the article is arguing the concept that our world is a finite one. A grow capacity will be reached someday and there will not be enough resources to support the population. Of course I may be totally wrong and off based. What I think about is that in some parts of the world this trend has actually reversed itself and presented itself problematic. Look at Greece for example. The government of Greece lowered the retirement age, and in turn had it's birth rate lowered due to education, health care, etc. This trend influenced the economic collapse of Greece, the social security could not be supported by the available work force. I am sure there is a lot more to the problem than that, but I wanted to play devil's advocate for a minute. And, Professor Carlson, if I was completely off about the reading, please take it easy on me.