🚀 go-pugleaf

Carlo Izzo <izzo> writes:
>	
>>Here-and-now
>>solutions such as harsh penalties for environmental abuses and forcing
>>polluting companies to fully internalize the costs of their actions
>>(to name just two), on the other hand, offer some hope that one can
>>believe in when one is _awake_.

>	Those companies are not just polluting, they are also producing 
>	wealth. You are enjoying that wealth too (and maybe you don't
>	deserve it).

Hah hah. Let me give you an example: Thor Chemicals at Cato Ridge were
importing mercury waste for 'recycling'. They made a lot of money
doing this. They created wealth. So far, 2 Thor workers have died of
mercury poisoning. The brother of one of the workers who died is still
working at Thor, because there's no other employment to go around. Is
it right for Thor to create wealth like this at the expense of their
workers (who, btw, were not told what the risks were)?

The cost of creating wealth must be seen in more than classical
economic terms. The electricity I buy would be more expensive if
cleaner technology were used to make it. At the moment, it however
remains cheap, and the people living close to the (coal) power
stations are subjected to acid rain and health risks. The cost this
electricity generation is exacting upon them is not calculated into my
bill, because classical economics can't calculate factors like that.

Wealth is created by means of profit - by means of supplying something
worth more to your consumer than it cost to produce. If the *true*
(ie. total social, environmental and economic cost) cost of production
were calculated in, would we still see ourselves as creating wealth?

Please tell me how a economic system which cannot calculate in the
true environmental and social costs of actions can have any relevance
as a form of social or environmental protection. If people and the
environment are not going to be protected by the economic system, then
surely we need something else - like regulation.

Peter
-- 
******************************************************************************
Peter van Heusden    |   UCT ITS/TSS       | "Ek vind geen klinkende
pvh@ucthpx.uct.ac.za | standard disclaimer |  rym vir rewolusie ..."
+27 21 650 3018      |       applies       |                   Joan Hambidge