4 ms·

how on earth would more competition decrease the environmental impact of modern capitalism?

TaylorAlexander 7y ago
Well as much as I am a advocate for converting to a cooperative economy, I do understand that logic. Our corporate capitalism today relies heavily on monopoly like power especially with things like intellectual property and businesses like ISPs. If Comcast was forced to provide commodity access to its network as well as interconnects with other line providers, then the monopoly like power Comcast has over internet access would be dramatically reduced. More competition would enter the market and theoretically lower prices. Or if intellectual property law was significantly weakened then we would see more competition as well.
- kennywinker 7y ago
  I think you might have misunderstood my comment. I'm arguing that more competition may be good for consumers, it's not doing any favours to the environment. Cheaper stuff means people consume more, more consumption means more environmental damage. Any effort to restructure our society and economies that doesn't put environmental impact first, is the wrong change.
  - TaylorAlexander 7y ago
    Ah! I did misunderstand. Thanks for the explanation!
malandrew 7y ago
> environmental impact Many (but certainly not all) externalities are process waste and an often an opportunity for margins improvement if you can figure out how to eliminate that waste. Now, if you can take those externalities that are not process waste but are still bad for the environment and you can put a price on them that needs to be paid, competition is going to drive businesses to figure out how to reduce the externalities. This is the premise behind buying carbon credits/offsets. The problem is that we don't yet have good ways to price in all externalities into the final cost of goods sold. That should be the problem we tackle.
- solidsnack9000 7y ago
  Even when we have good ways to price in the externalities, we often fail to do so.

Well as much as I am a advocate for converting to a cooperative economy, I do understand that logic. Our corporate capitalism today relies heavily on monopoly like power especially with things like intellectual property and businesses like ISPs. If Comcast was forced to provide commodity access to its network as well as interconnects with other line providers, then the monopoly like power Comcast has over internet access would be dramatically reduced. More competition would enter the market and theoretically lower prices. Or if intellectual property law was significantly weakened then we would see more competition as well.

kennywinker 7y ago
I think you might have misunderstood my comment. I'm arguing that more competition may be good for consumers, it's not doing any favours to the environment. Cheaper stuff means people consume more, more consumption means more environmental damage. Any effort to restructure our society and economies that doesn't put environmental impact first, is the wrong change.
- TaylorAlexander 7y ago
  Ah! I did misunderstand. Thanks for the explanation!

malandrew 7y ago

> environmental impact Many (but certainly not all) externalities are process waste and an often an opportunity for margins improvement if you can figure out how to eliminate that waste. Now, if you can take those externalities that are not process waste but are still bad for the environment and you can put a price on them that needs to be paid, competition is going to drive businesses to figure out how to reduce the externalities. This is the premise behind buying carbon credits/offsets. The problem is that we don't yet have good ways to price in all externalities into the final cost of goods sold. That should be the problem we tackle.

solidsnack9000 7y ago
Even when we have good ways to price in the externalities, we often fail to do so.