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How can economic waste be profitable? Maximum profit = minimum (economic) waste. Minimizing physical waste isn’t always a good thing. Take it to an extreme to
by FredPret 3y ago
How can economic waste be profitable? Maximum profit = minimum (economic) waste.
Minimizing physical waste isn’t always a good thing. Take it to an extreme to illustrate: one million engineers spend their whole careers to make a platinum toaster that will last billion years.
On the other extreme: one engineer slaps together a plastic toaster that breaks when you put the bread in.
Somewhere in between those two is an optimal point. We have to balance our energy, resources, brainpower, time, physical waste, and optionality effectively.
That balancing point is the perfect toaster, it makes a ton of profit, it doesn’t break before one use, and it doesn’t last forever either.
- Moomoomoo309 3y agoEconomic waste, as it seemed the previous commenter meant, can definitely be profitable. The cleanup of that waste can be treated as an externality that the company doesn't have to pay for at all - that was done a lot in prior decades when they would dump chemicals, for instance. The damage and waste plastic causes to the overall environment is the same way: the companies producing that plastic do not have to pay to clean it up, so that cost for them isn't counted because it's being paid for elsewhere.
- FredPret 3y agoFair point. That is a form of legislation and regulation I heartily support: addressing the tragedy of the commons, and de-distorting the market (most regulation introduces new distortions). Things like a carbon tax, or making especially dirty companies clean up their own pollution. This aligns minimum total economic waste, which includes environmental damage, with maximum profit.