Google announces release of Nexus phone - NPR Jan., 2010
Product release announcements are not news.
Major news organizations will report when large corporations introduce new products or try to buy other companies. But we see scant little reporting on issues related to economic externalities, as such.
'Economic externalities' are the side-effects of economic activity that are outside of the cost-benefit analysis, i.e., they are off the balance sheet and not part of the prices charged in the marketplace.
When we have some costs of production hidden from consumers (and from designers of production processes and business models) we get an inaccurate picture of the real costs of our decisions, so our cost-benefit analyses are flawed. Personal habits and the functioning of the entire economic system are skewed toward more harm to the environment and more depletion of resources, because there are no (or very few) general taxes or fees charged in proportion to natural resources taken or pollution released. Environmental impact costs are hidden from consumers. Economic externalities mean prices lie to us and cause us to do the wrong thing.
If news organizations want to report on new product releases, they should do so AFTER they have reported on systemic flaws in politics & economics.
The news story that this comment was prompted by has disappeared from the NPR website, so this comment no longer appears on their site (except on my profile page where you can read old posts that I have written).
Equal sharing of natural resources would mean a sustainable and more just civilization
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