4 ms·

You say including the ethical cost in the price removes the burden of choice, but I say excluding the cost in the price removes information for the consumer. I

You say including the ethical cost in the price removes the burden of choice, but I say excluding the cost in the price removes information for the consumer. I feel like the lucky 10000[1] also applies to bad things as well. I remember in high school having a conversation about teen pregnancy with classmates that wanted to go into medicine and they didn't realize that sex education in some school districts was so poor that some teenagers literally didn't know that sex made babies. Not a huge amount, but more than 0%. [1]https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/

amiga_500 6y ago
Sure, in many cases. I'd love to see externalities included in the price. But this is about people "doing the right thing". People know plastic bottles pollute. They know big cars pollute. Yet they buy them. Because many people do not do the right thing.
- ardy42 6y ago
  > People know plastic bottles pollute. They know big cars pollute. Yet they buy them. I wouldn't be so sure about that. If you think global warming is a hoax and your city has no air quality problems, do you know big cars pollute? Do you know your plastic bottles pollute, if you always put them in a recycle bin (and never check to see what happens to the contents of those bins)?
  - amiga_500 6y ago
    Yes to both questions. Recycling isn't magic. It takes energy. People know big cars pollute. They don't care.
    - ardy42 6y ago
      > Recycling isn't magic. It takes energy. It does, but the question is do "people" know that. I'd wager a good chunk of them haven't spent a second thinking about it. It's easier and happier to pat yourself for dropping your waste into the "right" bin and move on. > People know big cars pollute. They don't care. I don't think it's that simple. I think there's a strong consensus that "pollution" is bad, so resistance morphs into a denial that a particular thing is a pollutant. Restricting the discussion to CO2 for simplicity: if someone thinks global warming is a hoax, they'd deny that their car pollutes the air because they "know" CO2 doesn't cause any harm.
      - amiga_500 6y ago
        loads of middle class people have huge cars. they know. they don't believe in the trash USA global warming as conspiracy thing. and they don't care.

amiga_500 6y ago

Sure, in many cases. I'd love to see externalities included in the price. But this is about people "doing the right thing". People know plastic bottles pollute. They know big cars pollute. Yet they buy them. Because many people do not do the right thing.

ardy42 6y ago
> People know plastic bottles pollute. They know big cars pollute. Yet they buy them. I wouldn't be so sure about that. If you think global warming is a hoax and your city has no air quality problems, do you know big cars pollute? Do you know your plastic bottles pollute, if you always put them in a recycle bin (and never check to see what happens to the contents of those bins)?
- amiga_500 6y ago
  Yes to both questions. Recycling isn't magic. It takes energy. People know big cars pollute. They don't care.
  - ardy42 6y ago
    > Recycling isn't magic. It takes energy. It does, but the question is do "people" know that. I'd wager a good chunk of them haven't spent a second thinking about it. It's easier and happier to pat yourself for dropping your waste into the "right" bin and move on. > People know big cars pollute. They don't care. I don't think it's that simple. I think there's a strong consensus that "pollution" is bad, so resistance morphs into a denial that a particular thing is a pollutant. Restricting the discussion to CO2 for simplicity: if someone thinks global warming is a hoax, they'd deny that their car pollutes the air because they "know" CO2 doesn't cause any harm.
    - amiga_500 6y ago
      loads of middle class people have huge cars. they know. they don't believe in the trash USA global warming as conspiracy thing. and they don't care.