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Sometimes regulation can help an industry forward quite a bit. For example when a cleaner technology requires massive investments, but nobody wants to be first.
by phicoh 3y ago
Sometimes regulation can help an industry forward quite a bit. For example when a cleaner technology requires massive investments, but nobody wants to be first. When there is a clear cut-off date, like with ICE cars in the EU, then manufacturers can justify the investments and go ahead.
At the same time, a lot of spending on green technologies often means a lot of local jobs. Which can be good for the economy if the money would otherwise be spend on products or services that come from outside the EU.
Finally, economic indicators often don't quite capture quality of life, etc. For example, if EU cities make it harder to drive a car into city centers then that may result in lower economic growth, because fewer cars are needed. But people might be more happy walking, biking, etc.
- nebula8804 3y ago>But people might be more happy walking, biking, etc. Or they might drag their tractors into the highways and block off all access to the city in protest. I feel like I had this same conversation against a presenter at CCC recently. Do people really not see the backlash brewing against the left for proposing these ideas onto others?
- malermeister 3y agoIf we don't do good things out of fear of backlash from regressives, we have already lost.
- nebula8804 3y agoYou gotta sneak it in a way that does not affect the day to day world of the normies. Thats how anything meaningful gets done. At least in the US it is done one of three ways 1: For corrupt stealing of funds, stuff a contract into some other bill that marginally helps people. Example: The "Inflation Reduction Act" is 270+ pages. Its filled with giveaways here and there that wont be noticed by people directly, it will just eat away at them longterm in the form of higher taxes and inflation. They could totally enact small rule changes here and there to curb emissions in all of these bills and if you do it over an extended time period people wont notice the small changes. 2: Have the private sector solve it so that way people can "feel" like they can refuse. But what happens is that the market takes over and eventually this option is what people are stuck with since it becomes the cheapest. We are seeing this with EVs and hopefully we will reach a point where EVs get cheap enough and chargers become ubiquitous enough that the flywheel effect that keeps gas prices low will slow down and it enters a death spiral. 3: Have a national tragedy and use the opportunity to ram through a piece of legislation to affect massive change by forcing the opposition to have to take an unpopular side. Examples: LBJ pushing the Civil Rights Act after JFK's assassination, Patriot act after 9/11 etc.
- phicoh 3y agoI don't know what farmers are up against in all countries. There are certainly lots of things wrong in the overall markets for agricultural goods. However, in The Netherlands it basically seems that they protest for a right to pollute. Nature gets destroyed by to much nitrogen in the soil, to much polluted water. Bad water levels to support farmers, etc. Too much use of pesticides and herbicides that end up everywhere. You can call it left to fight against pollution. In that case, I'm happy to be left. There is an underlying problem where farmers have to work on large scale because margins are to thin. But then rhetoric starts. For example, consumers are blamed for not wanting to pay more for produce. But conveniently left out is what about goods that get exported. You can hardly blame Dutch consumers for not paying more for goods that get exported out of The Netherlands.
- mytailorisrich 3y agoLong term you cannot maintain "good quality of life" if you don't produce the wealth to pay for it. We're already seeing this happening in Europe.