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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (24705)	8/30/1998 3:39:00 AM
From: Aaron Cooperband	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Christine - Re: "international pollution credits" What you are suggesting might work, but its not practical. If pollution credits were distributed equitably initially, it would end up transferring a huge amount of wealth from developed countries to the third world. Needless to say, the developed countries wouldn't go for that. If the credits were distributed inequitably initially, nobody could come to agreement on the proper division. Even if you assume that this idea works, you still have the NIMBY (not in my back yard) problem. Without proper protections a pure economic system could end up concentrating pollution in a few specific locations (such as those with weak political representation or low population). Everyone wants clean energy, but who wants to live next to the microwave receiving station? Re: "If we would all calm down about this issue, there would be plenty of opportunities for businesses to make money creating environmentally sound products." It would be nice if entrepreneurs went out and created these products, but if they don't SELL then the idea is doomed to failure. They won't sell if they are less efficient than existing products, even if they are less polluting (the prisoner's dilemma again). The few altruists who purchase the products won't be enough to make a difference. The solution is (unfortunately) to tax the polluting product or subsidize the clean one. Both of these add inefficiencies into the economics - forcing people to do something that is not the most efficient alternative. This only works on the national level though - again because of the prisoner's dilemma. Those countries with a high tax on gasoline operate at a huge disadvantage to those with a small tax. It pays to be the only country with a low gas tax. One of the functions of government is to make those decisions which are in the best interests of the nation, but that would not normally be chosen by any one individual. Thus each government will deal with this issue to the best advantage of its citizens. For rich countries, quality of life may be worth a bit of sacrifice in wealth - so the government may force the pollution issue a bit. For less developed countries, they will sacrifice a lot to raise their wealth to a higher level - at the expense of the environment. This is, in fact, what you see happening in the US, China, Indonesia, etc. and is a difficult (if not impossible) problem to solve. Aaron