--- "K.Feete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> I... want... my... textbooks.
>
> We did this debate. Dammit. Where are my sources
> when I need 'em?
>
Your impartial NZ, American hating/mocking sources,
who are so extreme in their views that they think
you're anti-green?
> At any rate... there are a couple of flaws with the
> entire "free market
> environmentalism" approach. First, it assumes that
> the good of the
> company is the good of the world, or perhapst that
> the company is
> considering the long term whenever they make a
> decision, which, sadly, is
> not true. Second, it assumes that the only way to
> manipulate the laws of
> supply and demand are to make prices artificially
> high (self-defeating)
> when in fact prices can equally easily be kept
> artificially low. Witness
> the price of gas in the US; witness the WalMart
> phenomenon. In fact,
> there are dozens of "resources" that are sold for
> something less than
> their "true" value. I had a lovely article by a
> noted economist on the
> subject in my (grrrr) textbook.
>
> The "efficient use of resources" is *not* a major
> concern of many big
> companies, as far as I have been able to tell,
> because big companies can
> afford to be less efficient. As long as the cost of
> resources is minor,
> well... who notices a little waste here and there?
> Who *can* notice in a
> company the size of, say, Coca-Cola?
<snip>
>
> Basically free-market economics does not work half
> so well as it's
> throught to. The free market still requires, and
> will *always* require, a
> moral checkpoint; it is not in and of itself moral,
> nor should it be
> expected to be. Nor is it in and of itself
> environmental...
> environmentalism and morality being much the same in
> my book... nor
> should it be expected to be.
>
I think it's not too early for you to start facing
reality, Kat. You don't have to wait until you join
the workforce. the Big Evil Corporations are not in a
big conspiracy together to rape the earth and eat all
the hippies who dare speak against them. They're
composed of people doing their jobs. Granted, some of
the high ups may have the tendancy to pursue wealth
single mindedly to the exclusion of most other things.
But above all, in a free market economy, the Big
Nasty Baby Killing Soul Sucking Corporations make what
they love most, money, by doing one thing.
They give people what they want.
Let me say it again.
They give people what they want.
Go back and look at what I wrote about MS. I can
preach long and loud and convincingly about their
shortcomings. But in the end, they're giving people
what they ask for. They have no hidden agenda, no
mind control lasers, no political aspirations beyond
what effects their business. Heck, they even live on
this planet too. Of the big time chairman of the
board types, most of them golf. The thought might
cross their minds sometimes that if they do something
to adversely effect the environment, they might not
have their pretty lawns to play snooty pool on.
As far as R and D goes with researching new technology
or improving on existing technology, no corporation
benefits itself by dragging their feet and doing a
crappy job at anything. Especially when it's a
potential new lucrative source of profit. The free
market runs on enlightened self interest. Ultimately,
it's the only thing that you can trust a large group
of people to do- they're going to look after
themselves, and in a civilized society they're not
going to victimize others while doing so. Not too
much, anyway. =\.
I know just as well as you that it's easy to sit back
and critique what others do while not making a
contribution yourself. At least do the big evil
establishment the favor of giving a good hard look at
what they really do and why. It's the only way you're
going to be able to come up with something better.
When you do, send me some email and i'll come runnin.
dean
the serpent was subtil - pearl jam
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