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Going one step further. "How do we meaningfully calculate the total life cost of products? " Externalities, clean up costs etc are currently not being charged
by Arkhaine_kupo 4y ago
Going one step further. "How do we meaningfully calculate the total life cost of products? "
Externalities, clean up costs etc are currently not being charged which makes some products economically viable when they probably shouldn't be.
For example in China Coal plants keep getting opened, because despite a cheaper lifetime cost for solar, coal has a much lower upfront cost and without meaningful costs for environmental damage well you can always sell the fully profitable plant before the late life costs come and bite you. (There is more to it, but thats the simplified version of it).
Same with single use plastics. They are really cheap to make, but what about cleaning them up, recycling them etc. Without counting that cost, yeah manufacturing plastic is extremely cheap compared to like a well made pottery plate. But in 50 years the clay plate is still around and the plastic one is just microplastics in the ocean forever.
- worldsayshi 4y agoI don't doubt the part about environment costs but: >you can always sell the fully profitable plant before the late life costs come and bite you Why wouldn't this be accounted for in the selling price (unless you scam the buyer)?
- Arkhaine_kupo 4y agoYou can always sell it at the current price, but with further environmental commitments by country the price of operating or closing a plant will probably only go up. But due to the hypothetical nature of those new environmental regulations they are probably not considered during the buyout process. But the current trend would point towards their cost only going up, and no regulation making fossil fuel plants any cheaper to run or decomission.
- runnerup 4y agoThe highest bidder will generally always be making the most favorable assumptions of the future, some of which will turn out to be wrong.