Markets are not infallible tools. They are a pattern of human interaction that has certain pros and cons. It is a very powerful pattern, one that we should cont

Markets are not infallible tools. They are a pattern of human interaction that has certain pros and cons. It is a very powerful pattern, one that we should continue to use. But not blindly. One of the common modes failure for markets is situations with negative externalities. There is a negative outcome, a cost, that is not borne by the participants in a transaction. Thus, they have no economic incentive to do anything about it. The participants keep doing business, and the negative outcome keeps happening. Environmental damage is a very common example of negative externalities. E.g. groundwater poisoning, air pollution (which causes millions of deaths per year [1]), ecosystem destruction, climate change, and so on. [1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/air_pollution.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/air_pollution.htm