{"article":{"id":71758,"heading":"Free-Market Capitalism and Ecological Disaster","author":"Gary Elkin","created":"2003-07-12 14:33:29","modified":"2003-07-13 07:59:41","last_modified":"Sun, 13 Jul 2003 14:59:41","article":"

Capitalism, Right Libertarianism and the problem of \"externalities?\"

by Gary Elkin

Right libertarians have great difficulty in dealing with the problem of \"externalities\": that is, harmful environmental effects (e.g. pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, destruction of wildlife habitat) not counted as \"costs of production\" in standard methods of accounting.Such costs must be born by everyone in the society who is affected by them, and not only by the capitalists who produce them; hence it is possible for capitalist to ignore such effects when planning future production. But this means that such effects *will* be ignored, since competition forces firms to cut as many costs as possible and concentrate on short-term profits.

Right libertarians typically address the problem of externalities by calling for public education which will raise people's awareness of ecological problems to the point where there will be enough demand for environment-friendly technologies and products that they will be profitable.

This argument, however, ignores two crucially important facts: (1) that environment-friendly technologies and products *by themselves* are not enough to avert ecological disaster so long as capitalism retains its need for high growth rates (which it will retain because this need is inherent in the system); and (2) that in a right-libertarian world in which private property is protected by a \"night-watchman State\" or private security forces, a wealthy capitalist elite will still control education, as it does now -- and this because education is an essential indoctrination tool of the capitalist elite, needed to promote capitalist values and train a large population of future wage-slaves in proper habits of obedience to authority. For this reason, capitalists cannot afford to lose control of the educational system, no matter how much it costs them to maintain competitive schools. And this means that such schools will not teach students what is really necessary to avoid ecological disaster: namely, the dismantling of capitalism itself.

Another ecological problem that right libertarians cannot deal with satisfactorily is that capitalist firms *must* be committed to short-term profitability rather than long-term environmental responsibility in order to survive economically in the competitive market .

Here's an example: Suppose there are 3 automobile companies, X, Y, and Z, which are competitive (not conspiring to fix prices) and which exist in a right-libertarian society where there is no democratic community control over the economy. Then suppose that company X invests in the project of developing a non-polluting car within ten years. At the same time its competitors, Y and Z, will be putting their resources into increasing profits and market share in the coming days and months and over the next year. During that period, company X will be out of luck, for it will not be able to attract enough capital from investors to carry out its plans, since investment will flock to the companies that are most immediately profitable.

The right libertarian may respond by arguing that business leaders are as able to see long-term negative environmental effects as the rest of us. But this is to misunderstand the nature of the objection. It is not that business leaders *as individuals* are any less able to see what's happening to the environment. It is that if they want to keep their jobs they have to do what the system requires, which is to concentrate on what is most profitable in the short term. Thus if the president of company X has a mystical experience of oneness with nature and starts diverting profits into pollution control while the presidents of Y and Z continue with business as usual, the stockholders of company X will get a new president who is willing to focus on short-term profits like Y and Z.

In general, then, if one company tries to devote resources to develop products or processes that will save the environment, they will simply be undercut by other companies which are not doing so, and hence they won't be competitive in the market. In other words, capitalism has a built-in bias toward short-term gain, and this bias -- along with a built-in need for rapid growth -- means the planet will continue its free-fall toward ecological disaster so long as capitalism remains in place.<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.spunk.org\/library\/otherpol\/critique\/sp001282.txt","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"The Free-Market libertarian argues that business leaders see and understand the effects of long-term environmental damage. But business leaders concentrate on short term profits, thus the planet continues its free-fall toward ecological disaster.","numcomment":40,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/07\/71758.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":71971,"heading":"ozone depletion, wildlife destruction, etc.","article":" The right libertarians are too busy telling "the poor" not to have children to deal with petty matters like these.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 16:46:23","modified":"2003-07-12 16:46:23","fileurl":""},{"id":71977,"heading":"ML","article":"Tht's right Meyer. Take responsibility. If you can't afford kids, do them a favor and don't have them. You'll be doing us a favor too. Is responsibility too much to ask?","author":"parent","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 16:49:53","modified":"2003-07-12 16:49:53","fileurl":""},{"id":71982,"heading":"sphere","article":""In other words, capitalism has a built-in bias toward short-term gain, and this bias -- along with a built-in need for rapid growth -- means the planet will continue its free-fall toward ecological disaster so long as capitalism remains in place."\r\n\r\ncircle\r\ncircle going nowhere\r\ncircle stuck in neutral\r\n","author":"circle","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 16:54:57","modified":"2003-07-12 16:54:57","fileurl":""},{"id":71983,"heading":"Logical Fallacy","article":""In other words, capitalism has a built-in bias toward short-term gain, and this bias -- along with a built-in need for rapid growth -- means the planet will continue its free-fall toward ecological disaster so long as capitalism remains in place."\r\n\r\nUnsubstantiated Allegation","author":"debate coach","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 16:55:32","modified":"2003-07-12 16:55:32","fileurl":""},{"id":71984,"heading":"^","article":"That's the best that I can do.","author":"Eric","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 16:56:05","modified":"2003-07-12 16:56:05","fileurl":""},{"id":71986,"heading":"Meyer","article":"So let me get this straight.\r\nYou have no problem with poor people who can't afford them, having kids.\r\nEven though you KNOW that kids raised in poverty very often grow up in living conditions and "family" situations which are hellish.\r\nNo matter right?\r\nAs long as the poor folks can have as many kids as they want.\r\nAnd it's OUR responsibility to take care of them?\r\n\r\nSince when is having a child irresponsibly and expecting society to be the parent a "right"?\r\n\r\n","author":"fresca","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 16:57:44","modified":"2003-07-12 16:57:44","fileurl":""},{"id":71987,"heading":"fresca","article":"Oh, how I wish that I had aborted you!","author":"fresca","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 16:59:04","modified":"2004-03-09 22:02:00","fileurl":""},{"id":71993,"heading":"^","article":"Abortion would have been too good for my little shit!","author":"Meyer London's mom","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:05:16","modified":"2003-07-12 17:05:16","fileurl":""},{"id":71994,"heading":"^","article":"I'm so original.","author":"Eric","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:06:11","modified":"2003-07-12 17:06:11","fileurl":""},{"id":71995,"heading":"^^^","article":"ROFL!\r\n\r\nDoes the above, very clever, retort, mean that you agree with the fact that poor people shouldn't have kids if they can't afford them? Or what?\r\n\r\nReally. The concept is an utter no brainer. I didn'y even get a dog before I knew I could care for him properly.","author":"fresca","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:06:57","modified":"2003-07-12 17:06:57","fileurl":""},{"id":71996,"heading":"^","article":"Me too!\r\n.","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:07:39","modified":"2003-07-12 17:07:39","fileurl":""},{"id":71999,"heading":"fresca","article":"Oh, how I wish that your mother had aborted you!","author":"fresca","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:09:16","modified":"2004-03-09 22:02:00","fileurl":""},{"id":72001,"heading":"^^^^^^","article":"Now that's actually funny.","author":"fresca","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:09:56","modified":"2003-07-12 17:09:56","fileurl":""},{"id":72003,"heading":"^","article":"My mother should have aborted me. I'm the KING of no-brainers.","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:11:39","modified":"2003-07-12 17:11:39","fileurl":""},{"id":72005,"heading":"^","article":"That really is the best that I can do.","author":"Eric","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:13:08","modified":"2003-07-12 17:13:08","fileurl":""},{"id":72007,"heading":"^","article":"I lied. I didn't have a mother. I was and still am a little shit.","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:15:33","modified":"2003-07-12 17:15:33","fileurl":""},{"id":72008,"heading":"^","article":"That really is the best that I can do.\r\n\r\n","author":"Eric","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:16:26","modified":"2003-07-12 17:16:26","fileurl":""},{"id":72010,"heading":"(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)","article":""That really is the best that I can do."\r\n\r\n(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)\r\nOrganize!\r\nOrganize!\r\n(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)\r\n(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)\r\n","author":"^","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:18:07","modified":"2003-07-12 17:18:07","fileurl":""},{"id":72013,"heading":"sphere","article":""(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)"\r\n\r\ncircle \r\ncircle going nowhere \r\ncircle stuck in neutral ","author":"circle","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:22:46","modified":"2003-07-12 17:22:46","fileurl":""},{"id":72014,"heading":"confirming the point","article":" Notice how the right wing goonballs have pretty much confirmed my point that they are more interested in telling the so-called lower classes not to have children than they are in dealing with problems like ozone depletion, wildlife extinciton, global warming, and various ecological disasters. These may bring on the extinction of the human race - then these clowns won't have to offer any unsolicited advice to the poor not to have children.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:33:00","modified":"2003-07-12 17:33:00","fileurl":""},{"id":72015,"heading":"(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)","article":"(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)\r\nOrgan......... \r\n(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)\r\nOrg.......\r\n(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!) \r\n(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!) \r\n\r\n","author":"gasp!","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:34:55","modified":"2003-07-12 17:34:55","fileurl":""},{"id":72016,"heading":"sphere","article":""(wheeze!) cough cough (gasp!)"\r\n\r\ncircle \r\ncircle going nowhere \r\ncircle stuck in neutral \r\n","author":"circle","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:35:54","modified":"2003-07-12 17:35:54","fileurl":""},{"id":72018,"heading":"ML","article":""than they are in dealing with problems like ozone depletion, wildlife extinciton, global warming, and various ecological disasters."\r\n\r\nThat's because many of us have not read undisputable and conclusive evidence that these things you mention are taking place.\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, people who cannot care for children are still having them, and the children are the ones suffering for it. Don't you care enough to let these parents know they shouldn't have kids?","author":"parents","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:39:03","modified":"2003-07-12 17:39:03","fileurl":""},{"id":72019,"heading":"Science is a fraud","article":""That's because many of us have not read undisputable and conclusive evidence that these things you mention are taking place."\r\n\r\nThat's right. We conservatives don't believe in scientific evidence. \r\n\r\n","author":"Eric","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:41:52","modified":"2003-07-12 17:41:52","fileurl":""},{"id":72022,"heading":"That's right!","article":"Science that agrees with the liberal agenda is NOT science. It's fraud.","author":"parent","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:43:52","modified":"2003-07-12 17:43:52","fileurl":""},{"id":72024,"heading":"In fact....","article":"...anything that agrees with the liberal agenda is a lie.","author":"parent","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:44:49","modified":"2003-07-12 17:44:49","fileurl":""},{"id":72026,"heading":"Bullshit!","article":"Anything that agrees with the right-wing agenda is a LIE.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:45:42","modified":"2003-07-12 17:45:42","fileurl":""},{"id":72027,"heading":"sphere","article":""Anything that agrees with the right-wing agenda is a LIE."\r\n\r\ncircle\r\ncircle going nowhere\r\ncircle stuck in neutral","author":"circle","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:46:43","modified":"2003-07-12 17:46:43","fileurl":""},{"id":72028,"heading":"sphere","article":""Science that agrees with the liberal agenda is NOT science. It's fraud."\r\n\r\ncircle \r\ncircle going nowhere \r\ncircle stuck in neutral ","author":"circle","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 17:47:20","modified":"2003-07-12 17:47:20","fileurl":""},{"id":72035,"heading":"^","article":"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.................","author":"ho hum","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 18:08:29","modified":"2003-07-12 18:08:29","fileurl":""},{"id":72057,"heading":"fuck corps","article":"set the parameters in an enviro-friendly lite, ie; force the competitors to act envirowise or PAY heavy fines\r\n\r\nthe private enterprising, non-corporat, will take the bull and make it work...\r\n\r\nfines for enviro dumping, spillage, etc. are well read. These fines are?..sslap on ristw, nothin more","author":"cuzin it","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 20:38:43","modified":"2003-07-12 20:38:43","fileurl":""},{"id":72058,"heading":"private enterprizing","article":" Some of the worst polluters are small companies.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 20:49:09","modified":"2003-07-12 20:49:09","fileurl":""},{"id":72061,"heading":"Oh come on Meyer!","article":"You can do better than that. Put some oooooooomph on it! Where's the feeling? Where's the hate speech? Where's the invectives? You don't expect us to take you seriously with a half hearted post like that, now do you?","author":"Jace","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 21:31:17","modified":"2003-07-12 21:31:17","fileurl":""},{"id":72062,"heading":"SOME of the.....Worst are","article":"i wouldn't doubt it, Meyer. the pt. I'm trying to make is: IF there was an enviro-parameter business-incentive to BE enviro-conscious, then(from experience, i think) the private enterprising or smaller companies wld EASILY change, and NOT the fucking Corpses. And this seems to be the doorstop to any change towards enviro. the fucking corpssesss","author":"cuzin it","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 21:35:52","modified":"2003-07-12 21:35:52","fileurl":""},{"id":72066,"heading":"^","article":"ur worried bout a problem that doesnt exist\r\n\r\ntoo many laws already. lots of watchdogs. the environment is in no way even close to being in danger\r\n\r\nbark tho. it makes the moon feel better","author":"read","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 21:49:29","modified":"2003-07-12 21:49:29","fileurl":""},{"id":72069,"heading":"Industry-funded "experts" twist the debate","article":"Rethinking the Think Tanks - How industry-funded "experts" twist the environmental debate. \r\n\r\nBy Curtis Moore \r\n\r\nThe Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) are only 2 of roughly 300 industry-funded groups that are helping businesses and the wealthy convert their vast economic and market power into political might. Their messages are invariably the same: Government regulation--most especially environmental protection--is bad, and any science that justifies it is "junk." Usually these messages are reinforced by money deployed to campaign coffers. \r\n\r\n...CSE's representatives have appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows and published 235 op-ed articles. What do they tell us? Among other things, that "environmental conservation requires a commonsense approach that limits the scope of government," acid rain is a "so-called threat [that] is largely nonexistent," and global warming is "a verdict in search of evidence." \r\n\r\nThese opinions were echoed on MSNBC, C-SPAN, PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, and elsewhere by representatives from the libertarian Cato Institute. Cato "experts" are working hard to pound home a variety of anti-environmental points. They have argued that the global ban on chlorofluoro-carbons--the chemicals that destroy stratospheric ozone--is a case of science being "distorted, even subverted." They've suggested that concerns over lead paint, asbestos, radon, and similar in-home poisons amount to "hysteria." And they've maintained that federally funded research at Harvard and other universities--used, for example, in the regulation of air pollution--"has frequently been tainted by poor methodology ... and even borderline cases of fraud. \r\n\r\n...While the CSE Foundation works the legal angle, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) "educates" the judges who will hear cases. Indeed, the two judges, Douglas Ginsburg and Stephen Williams, who held the Clean Air Act unconstitutional (a ruling that was later overturned by the Supreme Court), based their decision largely on the arguments advanced by CSEF. And both judges had enjoyed the all-expenses-paid FREE seminars. (Ginsburg attended them each year from 1993 to '98; Williams went in 1993 and 1998.) \r\n\r\nThe Montana seminars feature horseback riding and hiking at FREE's dude ranch near Big Sky. In each of two years, 1999 and 2000, 6 percent of the federal judiciary took in these junkets. A typical day includes morning presentations, free time in the afternoon, an evening cocktail hour, and then dinner with a speech by, say, Alfred DeCrane Jr., retired head of Texaco, called "The Environment--A CEO's Perspective."","author":"Curtis Moore","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 21:55:41","modified":"2003-07-12 21:55:41","fileurl":""},{"id":72079,"heading":"After the next election this is moot","article":"After the Republicans sweep the next elections, which we're going to do, we'll control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.\r\n\r\nThe first order of business is going to be to blow off the Democrats, the Greens, the Libertarians, the Socialists, the Communists, and anyone else who even looks like they might lean to the left.\r\n\r\nCall it housekeeping.\r\n\r\nThe first order of business will be cutting taxes for those who pay taxes. After that comes labor law reform. After that comes welfare reform and the elimination of as many entitlement programs as possible.\r\n\r\nIt's called forward progress and it's coming to your neighborhood.\r\n\r\nIt should have happened 20 or 30 years ago. Better late than never.","author":"Bush Admirer","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 22:54:17","modified":"2003-07-12 22:54:17","fileurl":""},{"id":72086,"heading":"Bush PUT the Libertarians in Power!","article":""former LIBERTARIAN Gale Norton is one small step for the Republican Party, but one giant leap for Libertarian-style environmental policies" Steve Dasbach, L.P. National Director\r\n\r\n"Gale Norton should be thrown in JAIL", Elouise Cobell, Blackfeet tribe leader\r\n------------------------------\r\n\r\nSTOLEN TRUST: Gale Norton, Native Americans and the Case of the Missing $10 Billion\r\nJeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, September 5, 2002 \r\n\r\nElouise Cobell comes right to the point. "Gale Norton should be thrown in jail." Cobell is a leader of the Blackfeet tribe, and lives along the Rocky Mountain Front in northwestern Montana. Norton, of course, is SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR and, as such, oversees the US government's relationship with Indian tribes. \r\n\r\nNorton also CONTROLS THE PURSE STRINGS on federal trust funds holding more than $40 billion dollars owed to Indians across the nation. For her role in the mismanagement of the trust fund, Norton is facing a contempt court citation from federal judge Royce Lamberth. If she gets slapped, she'll be in bi-partisan company. In 2000, Lamberth hit Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin with contempt citations for failing to halt the destruction of Indian trust account documents....\r\n\r\nSee: http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/stclair0905.html","author":"Elouise Cobell","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-12 23:45:54","modified":"2003-07-12 23:45:54","fileurl":""},{"id":72100,"heading":"Tree Sitters","article":"One of the best things these enviro loonies have done is tree sitting to protest against logging.\r\n\r\nEvery tree sitter is pretty much out of the loop and up in a tree. \r\n\r\nWhy can't they all be tree sitters? We have plenty of trees to go around. Be great if they'd all go climb a tree and stay up there.","author":"Bush Admirer","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-13 03:29:02","modified":"2003-07-13 03:29:02","fileurl":""},{"id":72113,"heading":"unreal","article":"Of course it is always bad to try and uphold the environment.\r\nIm sure these "tree sitters" would school your ass on the aspects of the kyoto treaty and global warming issues. They took time to learn.\r\nThese are things that you have no knowledge of.\r\nJust like you have no knowledge of the courage it takes to risk your life for a cause you believe in.\r\nYou, bushit admirer, have no idea what that takes.\r\nYour knowledge of the environment comes from draft dodgers like rush limberger and gw bushit.\r\nYou are a disgrace to mother earth.","author":"doublespeak","parent_id":71758,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-07-13 07:59:41","modified":"2003-07-13 07:59:41","fileurl":""}]}