At 05:01 PM 7/17/01 +1200 K.Feete wrote:
>Eh, yes, but when the solution is something like "stop using so much
>stuff" people actually *prefer* the problem. It's not that "we" greeners
>are short on solutions; it's that we're short on ways of getting people
>to *impliment* solutions. Not in all cases, but in at least a few.
Of course, what point is there in preserving a static environment if it
impovershes us all?
If environmentalitsts were more serious and honest that we need to make
*tradeoffs* someone might actually believe them.
A good start would be pointing out that burning a gallon of gasoline
currently produces more damage to the atmosphere than is collected in
taxes. A serious argument for slowly increasing gasoline taxes
(especially now that the price is coming down) could go a long way.
Instead, environmentalists just wail about how we need to force ourselves
to *not* do things (with those things we must not do being dictated to us
by the government.) If the greens would show a bit more interest in
having *markets* not the elites in government decide how to best help the
environment, maybe they would get somewhere.
Case in point was on ABC News yesterday. There is a beach in North
Carolina that is eroding at the rate of ONE FOOT A DAY!, yet, erosion
barriers cannot be erected, because the local environmental agency has rule
that those erosion barriers *might* disrupt an area that the endangered
piping plover (pop. 1400 breeding pairs from ME to TX) *might* want to use
as a breeding area. In the meantime, a valuable beach is being
destroyed, and millions of dollars of buildings are directly threatened.
Don't get me wrong, I am all about some sacrifices to save the piping
plover - but this is the sort of ridiculous antics that get all greens
labeled sugar-crazed tree-huggers.
> or the heartily reassuring appearance of trained protestors
>demanding that free trade be regulated by at least *some* sense of
>morality.
Oh yes, it is so reassuring to see all those people protest against two
consenting adults agreeing to make a trade that benefits both of them. I
can't tell you much more comfortable I am knowing that thousands of
protestors trained in everything but economics are going to keep me from
purchasing rice produced by a poor African farmer. Indeed, its not
surprising that most of these wealthy rich kids are involved, since most of
the barriers to trade are in things like agriculture and manufactured goods
- which - surprise, surprise, end up raising prices from exactly the goods
that poor people spend most of their money on.
If this your vision of morality, Kat, give me hedonism.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
We are products of the same history, reaching from Jerusalem and
Athens to Warsaw and Washington. We share more than an alliance.
We share a civilization. - George W. Bush, Warsaw, 06/15/01
