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I'm not sure how well this would actually work, but someone (or group of people) would own the air/water quality. In order to pollute you would have to come to

• mikeash 12y ago
  The main trouble I see with that is that they'd have a monopoly, and that causes all sorts of trouble. When you get down to it, your proposal is basically what we have now, where that group of people that owns the air/water quality is the government. I don't think they technically own it, but given their ability to set standards, fine people for violations, etc. it ends up as more or less the same thing.
  • seanflyon 12y ago
    Just to be clear, this is not my proposal. I like the concept of markets determining the cost of various things. I would prefer that the government auction off pollution rights each year, that way the government holds thew monopoly and determines the cap, but we still have reasonable pricing. No matter how little you polluted you would still have an incentive to pollute less. What we have now is free pollution up to an arbitrary point where it becomes very expensive (because it is illegal). The obvious dominant strategy in the current system is to not care about pollution unless you are near the legal limit.