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Cleaning all that stuff up is an opportunity for growth. Entire industries will need to be involved in order to pull it off.

rurp 7y ago
In some cases, sure, where there is a clearly identifiable problem. But widespread pollution is particularly insidious because it can cause large amounts of people to develop serious health issues that have no clear cause and no reliable treatment.
gurumeditations 7y ago
That’s like saying poisoning is good for people because the sicker people are, the more hospitals and doctors you’ll need. The money has to come from somewhere. There is no profit in cleaning up messes, just loss reduction. The money, trillions of dollars just for climate change alone, has to come from somewhere. If past generations had not been so greedy, that money would be in our pockets. Instead, it will be burned because we have to clean up the unfathomable messes older people have created.
- ddingus 7y ago
  No, it is saying that it is worth it to clean up after ignorance and folly. And there are eventually gains to be had. Those clean areas are worth more, the money paid to labor means demand, growth, etc...
  - gurumeditations 7y ago
    It takes a lot of money to fix all the disasters they’ve created. It takes trillions of dollars out of our pockets. It’s a loss because they were greedy and stole from us to fund their lifestyles. That’s trillions of dollars that could’ve gone to paying for healthcare and college for generations. Instead it’s picking up the toxic mess that older people have left for us to deal with.
    - ddingus 7y ago
      We can still do those things. Perhaps we need to value things differently. Instead of what could have been, we can and need to focus on what can be. Longer term, that is the better play. We all live here and are going to do that for a very long time yet. It is worth it to make sure living here makes sense, period.
christophilus 7y ago
Sounds like the broken window fallacy: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/broken-window-fallacy.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/broken-window-fa...
- tlb 7y ago
  The fallacy is that it's good to break windows. Even though it's not good to break them, fixing windows that are already broken is worthwhile.
jdkee 7y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
amiga_500 7y ago
Only on hacker news would your comment be ok and the parent is downvoted
bzbz 7y ago
Sure. That's great. But where are the incentives to promote this "opportunity" to those who want to do so without net loss?

rurp 7y ago

In some cases, sure, where there is a clearly identifiable problem. But widespread pollution is particularly insidious because it can cause large amounts of people to develop serious health issues that have no clear cause and no reliable treatment.

gurumeditations 7y ago

That’s like saying poisoning is good for people because the sicker people are, the more hospitals and doctors you’ll need. The money has to come from somewhere. There is no profit in cleaning up messes, just loss reduction. The money, trillions of dollars just for climate change alone, has to come from somewhere. If past generations had not been so greedy, that money would be in our pockets. Instead, it will be burned because we have to clean up the unfathomable messes older people have created.

ddingus 7y ago
No, it is saying that it is worth it to clean up after ignorance and folly. And there are eventually gains to be had. Those clean areas are worth more, the money paid to labor means demand, growth, etc...
- gurumeditations 7y ago
  It takes a lot of money to fix all the disasters they’ve created. It takes trillions of dollars out of our pockets. It’s a loss because they were greedy and stole from us to fund their lifestyles. That’s trillions of dollars that could’ve gone to paying for healthcare and college for generations. Instead it’s picking up the toxic mess that older people have left for us to deal with.
  - ddingus 7y ago
    We can still do those things. Perhaps we need to value things differently. Instead of what could have been, we can and need to focus on what can be. Longer term, that is the better play. We all live here and are going to do that for a very long time yet. It is worth it to make sure living here makes sense, period.

christophilus 7y ago

Sounds like the broken window fallacy: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/broken-window-fallacy.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/broken-window-fa...

tlb 7y ago
The fallacy is that it's good to break windows. Even though it's not good to break them, fixing windows that are already broken is worthwhile.

jdkee 7y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

amiga_500 7y ago

Only on hacker news would your comment be ok and the parent is downvoted

bzbz 7y ago

Sure. That's great. But where are the incentives to promote this "opportunity" to those who want to do so without net loss?