4 ms·

You're not wrong, similar to how certain organisms make a niche out of decomposing other creatures, it seems like all the garbage we produce should contain enou

You're not wrong, similar to how certain organisms make a niche out of decomposing other creatures, it seems like all the garbage we produce should contain enough "economic free energy" so to speak, in order to properly recycle most of our waste. Also I mostly agree with your point about externalities. I think a large portion of the evils of capitalism can be attributed to mispriced externalities, but certainly not all of it.

ScottBurson 8y ago
What would be an example of an evil of capitalism that is not attributable to mispriced externalities? I have trouble coming up with one myself.
- mrob 8y ago
  Somebody could be born, by no fault of their own, with a rare disease that would cost more to treat than they can realistically earn, and which insurers can easily detect as a pre-existing condition.
  - xtian 8y ago
    Even if we're speaking just in economic terms, the value of saving a life or the cost of not saving it is lot more complex than their total potential earnings. Failure to take that into account would be the mispricing in this scenario.
- azernik 8y ago
  Monopolies that underproduce/underinnovate. The 2008 crash involved a combination of a principal-agent problem (between mortgage underwriters and the ultimate sources of capital that bought the CDOs) and the limits of the market as a transmitter of reliable information. The market does not by default transmit its signals in a way that humans respond optimally to (not even from the point of view of their interests). e.g. people discount the future gas savings of a slightly more expensive car in a way that implies an implicit interest rate much higher than the actual one. The market assigns the power to consume (money) in ways that do not reflect actual human values - i.e. the decision that someone whose skills are in demand should be able to consume 4x what their neighbor can, rather than 2x, is not a question of efficiency but of values, and when it comes to the high and low ends the market's values are inhuman.

ScottBurson 8y ago

What would be an example of an evil of capitalism that is not attributable to mispriced externalities? I have trouble coming up with one myself.

mrob 8y ago
Somebody could be born, by no fault of their own, with a rare disease that would cost more to treat than they can realistically earn, and which insurers can easily detect as a pre-existing condition.
- xtian 8y ago
  Even if we're speaking just in economic terms, the value of saving a life or the cost of not saving it is lot more complex than their total potential earnings. Failure to take that into account would be the mispricing in this scenario.
azernik 8y ago
Monopolies that underproduce/underinnovate. The 2008 crash involved a combination of a principal-agent problem (between mortgage underwriters and the ultimate sources of capital that bought the CDOs) and the limits of the market as a transmitter of reliable information. The market does not by default transmit its signals in a way that humans respond optimally to (not even from the point of view of their interests). e.g. people discount the future gas savings of a slightly more expensive car in a way that implies an implicit interest rate much higher than the actual one. The market assigns the power to consume (money) in ways that do not reflect actual human values - i.e. the decision that someone whose skills are in demand should be able to consume 4x what their neighbor can, rather than 2x, is not a question of efficiency but of values, and when it comes to the high and low ends the market's values are inhuman.