>We earn money by providing value to other people. And consequently, >The money you've earned represents value you've contributed to society. >This holds across

>We earn money by providing value to other people. And consequently, >The money you've earned represents value you've contributed to society. >This holds across almost every asset class and profit-making strategy in the modern world. if i extract 100 tons of carbon from the earth in the form of petroleum, then sell it to make a profit of $100, that profit does not take any externality into account. i could be making it such that $101 dollars of future economic activity is prevented by virtue of the extraction process or subsequent combustion and ruination of the environment. the petroleum "provided value" -- positive short-term value, but with a stiff cost of net negative value in the future. the fact that i subsequently use those $100 that i made to consume some product isn't relevant. society would have been better off if i hadn't made the money in the first place. this stuff isn't hard.