To bring us back towards free markets and competition... There are clever (and possibly true) arguments about how free markets and open competitions create situations that benefit most of the people involved. So far as I know, all of these clever arguments rely on informed consumers and a relatively level playing field between the competitors. The problems in these brown-green-energy situations, then, are that consumers are not informed, and the playing field is not level. Nick's jokes, about exposing company executives and consumers directly to the pollution their "green" technology is built on, are having fun with the first requirement. The second requirement, the level playing field, is the problem with "exported externalities" (jargon even George Orwell might admire). The cost of purchasing a product should (under the clever-and-possibly-true arguments), reflect the full cost of production. A company that shifts the cost of cleaning up its mess onto tax payers, or future generations, is "cheating" primarily in the sense that it is selling a product for less that the cost of production.
That is, it is not a problem that companies are finding cheaper and cheaper means of production (for example, by building factories where labor is cheaper). Rather, it is a problem when the company finds cheaper means of production by delaying and avoiding the actual costs associated with their product. If the toxic lake in Mongolia will never be cleaned, and created no economic damage, the company is (at least relative to these clever theories), just fine. If, on the other hand, some government will one day clean that land, or pay higher medical costs as a result of the pollution, then the company should (if the market is functioning properly) be charged a cost, which will then be reflected in the amount that the product costs consumers. Of course, we can always reject the clever pro-capitalism arguments, but that is a totally different discussion. My point is: Even people who buy the clever pro-capitalism arguments, and promote free markets, should recognize this type of behavior as unacceptable. You can chastise just based on the economics, you do not even need the morality. Eric (or "Eric C", as there seem to be two of us in this discussion)
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