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This textbook response doesn't address what often happens in reality. Wages don't always capture the true costs of production. The public burden of the coal m
by chishaku 7y ago
This textbook response doesn't address what often happens in reality.
Wages don't always capture the true costs of production. The public burden of the coal miner who gets lung cancer can be viewed as a negative externality.
Indeed, many labor protections in the US seek to specifically address this type of externality.
- tptacek 7y agoNo, it doesn't address the phenomenon that the grandparent comment was concerned with (worker exploitation). But it doesn't claim to. It simply, and correctly, establishes that worker treatment isn't an externality. "Textbook" definitions have nothing to do with it.
- chishaku 7y ago> it doesn't address [worker exploitation] This is my point. Ignoring concerns of worker exploitation and focusing on textbook definitions comes off as dismissive, even if that wasn't the intent. Similarly, your comment comes off as dismissive which highlights the importance of the context that I added. Worker exploitation does result in negative externalities, even if the exploitation itself is not an externality.
- tptacek 7y agoAll 'rayiner said was that worker exploitation isn't an externality. The comment to which he was responding said literally nothing other than that worker exploitation was an externality. Worker exploitation is not an externality. I'm not sure how you're finding a way to object to this.
- chishaku 7y agoI've not objected to the definition. I'm adding nuance that you're still trying to dismiss. Worker exploitation does result in negative externalities, even if the exploitation itself is not an externality.