Geeze, Nick. You can't *make* people do the right thing. People have to want to do the right thing. People don't want to do the right thing. (Speaking in majority terms now, minority exceptions don't count). Things won't change until people change. When will that be? Not in our lifetime, people are slow learners, and relatively stupid, statistically speaking. We're talking on the evolutionary time scale before the collective good will come before the individual profit on this particular spec of the cosmos.
--Doug BTW, I'm a realist. Not a pessimist, nor an optimist. Roger probably understands. And Steve. I kind of wonder about some of the rest of you, though. On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Nicholas Thompson < nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > Thanks, Roger. Well distilled. As to your main question, I think it’s a > control system problem. Somehow the thermostat (the board room) needs to be > made sensitive to the temperature (the pollution.) Friam would seem to be > really well poised to think about this issue. But I think we need a > concrete example. Here’s one we might try. In Massachusetts near where we > lived was a mill town called Ware. (Brief pause for tiresome plays on > words. “Ware? Where? What do they make there, wares? They make wares in > Ware by the weirs? Weird!”) All the mill workers lived down in the slot > with the mill. The fancy folk, lived up on a hill to the NW of town > (prevailing wind, NW), on an Avenue appropriately called, “Church Street”. > Now this arrangement is clearly a prescription for mischief. What could we > possibly do about it? > > > > Roger’s two solutions will have to play a role. Bulldozing the rich folk’s > houses and installing a public park on the hill top would help. Never clear > to me why class warfare was a bad thing. > > > > But to me, the first step is sharply progressive marginal income tax. Why > is that moral? Because I assume that, IF a person is rich it is because he > has found a way to appropriate public goods and externalize private costs. > > > > I keep mulling the concept, “faceless bureaucrat” . Is this the public > sector equivalent of the rich guy? A man who never has to follow the > regulations he writes. > > > > Are there limits to this principle? Do you really want your surgeon to > feel the pain of every incision he makes? > > > > Nick > > > > *From:* friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On > Behalf Of *Roger Critchlow > *Sent:* Tuesday, March 29, 2011 9:19 AM > > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] vol 93, issue 22 > > > > Of course, that's the whole issue. Do we let faceless bureaucrats figure > these things out and impose burdensome regulations? Or do we let gangs of > rapacious attorneys sue for ruinous damages after the fact? Or is there > another way to force consideration of public good into decisions about > private gain? > > > > -- rec -- > > > > On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 8:39 AM, Dale Schumacher < > dale.schumac...@gmail.com> wrote: > > And how, dear mice, do you propose to "bell the cat"? > > > On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 1:22 AM, Russ Abbott <russ.abb...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > That's exactly Nick's point. He says we should make it a cost to the > > polluter. > > > > -- Russ Abbott > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > -- Doug Roberts drobe...@rti.org d...@parrot-farm.net 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
