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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (33536)3/30/1999 12:28:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte  Read Replies (3) of 108807
 
>He
contended (in the argot typical of economists) that extinction of valuable animals and
plants would not occur because it was not in the entrepreneurs interest.<

Oh my! Oh yes! I am continually reminded of the example of Easter Island. It was largely wooded when the first islanders colonized. They brought stone axes and goats. The combination was the stuff of environmental catastrophe. As the woodland shrank, the value of each tree went up. But seen entrepreneurially - the value of each tree *cut down* went up! When that last tree was standing - its assessed value as firewood exceeded its projected value as the last hope for more wood sometime later. The Easter Islanders ruined their island and died out without assistance from Westerners.

Our market economy does a lousy job of valuating slowly renewable resources.
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