Our political process must limit harm to the environment

Comment to: 'How Private Equity Firms Work' - Talk of the Nation

We don't see much reporting (or any reporting) in the mainstream media about systemic flaws in our economic system.

It is a failure of public policy that makes harmful practices profitable for industry.

If putting pollution or taking natural resources causes harm to others (either because air and water quality is decreased or because resources are made unavailable to others) then it makes sense to charge a fee to those who cause the harm.

In a democratic society, fees would be set high enough so that most people would agree that the rates of taking of resources and rates of putting pollution are within acceptable limits.

This is a systemic flaw (to allow these side-effects of economic activity to go uncompensated) because it means that prices give false information about true costs. We do things that cause pollution and other kinds of environmental degradation *more* than what we would do if these environmental impacts were reflected in prices.

Resolving this systemic defect through fees on pollution and on the taking of natural resources would mean that efforts by corporations to seek to reduce costs would cause them to try to reduce environmental harm. With the current system, there is often a conflict (always a conflict) between what is good for the corporation and what is good for the larger community.


Is Civilization a Success or a Failure or is it Too Soon to Tell?