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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: neolib who wrote (7825)12/21/2005 5:01:35 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 541957
 
I once floated the logical extension of monetarizing everything on the POP thread, but it didn't get a welcome reception. Basically we replace our current monetary system with metamoney, which simply tracks all economic interactions, and maintains a lifelong record which becomes inherited by your heirs as well. You and your heirs reap all rewards and all risks for the some total of all your lifelong actions. You buy nuke energy today, and 50 years from now, the cost of waste disposal goes through the roof, and your heirs find themselves penniless. That would be pure economic Libertarianism

No it wouldn't.

1 - It would require a huge amount of state intervention to implement.

2 - It penalizes some people for the actions of others.

Lets look at your specific example. Suppose I use energy from a nuclear plant. I might not have much of a choice, I don't control the utility. But lets overlook that or assume it is my decision. I have used the energy. My decedents (if I have any) have not. Even if you can look past that, what if nuclear waste disposal does get expensive, but also using nuclear energy allows us to use less fossil fuels and thus lessens or eliminates problems from global warming?

The eventual real or potential costs are probably too complicated to figure out even after the fact. And reasonably to impose the cost for actions taken today I think you should have to be able to at least approximate the cost before the fact.

Tim
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