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Sound bites drives political discussion. When a polluting industry poisons the air and the water and people go to the hospital because they are coughing or the
by rawgabbit 2y ago
Sound bites drives political discussion.
When a polluting industry poisons the air and the water and people go to the hospital because they are coughing or they have dysentery, who will pay to cleanup the mess? If you frame the discussion as about “price” it is a non-starter.
I would argue it is better to talk about workers and their families. As in let us not shit in the river so our children don’t get sick and can go to school. Let us not poison the air so workers can do their jobs and not go to hospital.
- robertlagrant 2y agoThis seems disingenuous twice: 1. You're welcome to argue that, but you haven't here. You've just stated it. 2. You shouldn't supplant one topic with another. High energy prices kill people, because energy drives the cost of everything, and people can direct less value into things that keep them healthy if they're spending a greater proportion of their income on survival. You can say "also air should be clean", fine, but not "Don't think about prices! Look over here instead!"
- Tade0 2y ago1. Air pollution kills more. 2. You can have your cake and eat it, if you drop the requirement to buy electricity at the price of the most expensive component in the mix. Spain did just that and they're currently experiencing an industrial revival thanks to comparatively low energy prices.
- rawgabbit 2y agoNo, I would argue I am correctly framing externalized costs ie the tragedy of the commons.
- robertlagrant 2y agoThe context is "You want to raise the price of energy to make wind etc competitive?" Adding a separate topic seems like a distraction. Everyone knows about negative externalities. I don't think we need to rehearse the same points to obscure the specific one I'm asking about.
- Kim_Bruning 2y agoI think Rawgabbit is trying to get at the point that you need to price in the externalities to find the actual value of something. They're trying to explain in good faith as far as I can tell.
- Sabinus 2y ago>High energy prices kill people Indeed, and so does air pollution. Having (accurate) prices on both allows the market to reduce pollution and energy costs efficiently.