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So given that we have to make chemicals somewhere, how do we minimize the externalities? Locate the plant somewhere where nobody lives, and downwind from the p
by narrator 9y ago
So given that we have to make chemicals somewhere, how do we minimize the externalities? Locate the plant somewhere where nobody lives, and downwind from the plant are hundreds of miles of ocean where nobody lives, etc. This is probably where they would be naturally located if plant owners had to pay for externalities.
- maxxxxx 9y agoIf plant owners had to pay for externalities they would make sure the plant doesn't release pollution.
- narrator 9y agoDoes money really solve all problems though? This is what is a bit naive about economics. Would people living downwind from the plant be ok with getting XX million dollars if they had to die early from cancer and miss out on 40 years of their lives? Why not move the plant somewhere where it's not getting anybody sick instead of trying to solve all problems with giving victims money. Money is not the universal and only solution to all problems.
- epistasis 9y agoMoney's not a universal solution. But in this particular case it would help. If re plant owners had to pay for the damage they inflicted on those around them, then given a choice between a site where they had to pay because people were there and a site where they did not have to pay because people were not there, what would they choose? Also, enforcing economic solutions does not necessarily prevent adding other non economic solutions. For an economic activity, such as production of these chemicals, economic solutions can go a really really long way to bettering behavior.
- maxxxxx 9y agoi think the point is that the plant would become prohibitively expensive so the economical and profitable thing would be to produce in a cleaner way. Unfortunately the other option is to move the plant to the third world and kill poor people who can't afford to fight back.