Arthur Cordell wrote: > The USSR and the whole east bloc also had the power to "go green." But > they continued with yesterday's approach and externalized costs. It was > always a mystery to me why this was so.
Marx ignored the environmental part of profits (external costs) -- he was red but not green: For Marx, exploitation consisted only of low wages. Environment was not an issue in his era anyway, and being a technical illiterate, he was unable to foresee clean technologies. > Many years ago while travelling in the then east bloc (Prague) I was > stunned by the amount of pollution. I had always associated pollution > (and externalising costs) with greedy capitalists. Turns out that > stupid socialists also externalized costs. Well, stupid socialists simply sticked to the old textbooks of Marx's era, like stupid capitalists stick to ol' Adam Smith and Ricardo, with similar enviro results. Just too outdated to be green... > Seems like China is going down the same road. > > Underscores the need for global environmental (and labour, etc.) standards. The WTO and U.N. are busy with hammering the race to the bottom... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
