The race to buy up the world's water
newsweek.com
The race to buy up the world's water
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Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#2Was this not the basic plot of the latest Bond flick?
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#3Was this not the basic plot of the latest Bond flick?
Yes, it was.
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#4Was this not the basic plot of the latest Bond flick?
What's funny about that is that it was based on a real case, and the real case was actually worse. The movie played things down a bit, to make them more believable.
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#5The market is the only mechanism that can allocate scarce resources equitably. And the only alternative is politics.
In California, those with influence have secured water for agriculture at below market rates, water delivered with infrastructure built by taxpayer dollars.
When people can get a resource for less than the cost of delivering it, they use it with less discretion. And the prices of the things they produce with it don't reflect the true value of the water, even if they did pay for all costs of delivery.
That's because water has value itself. Its not just the cost of delivering it that matters.
But when a resource is allocated with a political process, the only costs that are considered are the costs of delivery. Assuming the taxpayer's interests are represented at all.
The political process is notoriously shortsighted. But if someone owns a resource, they have an interest in preserving it. Its sale price represents the total future value of it, not just what can be extracted during a politicians term of office.
Private ownership is not the cause of all of the political wars over water. It is their solution.
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#6Was this not the basic plot of the latest Bond flick?
What's funny about that is that it was based on a real case, and the real case was actually worse. The movie played things down a bit, to make them more believable.
Can you find a reference to the case you mention? Sounds worth reading.
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's funny about that is that it was based on a real case, and the real case was actually worse. The movie played things down a bit, to make them more believable.
Can you find a reference to the case you mention? Sounds worth reading.
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#8Buying and selling water is nothing new. Usually it is transported in agricultural products. (And pretty much any manufactured item, but the big use is agricultural products.)
This lets you do trivial substitution for a water deficit: import crops, grow less crops locally, drink the stuff you were about to pour on the crops you no longer have.
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#9It's ok: I only drink Coke Zero.
Re: The race to buy up the world's water
#10The market is the only mechanism that can allocate scarce resources equitably. And the only alternative is politics. In California, those with influence have secured water for agriculture at below market rates, water delivered with infrastructure built by taxpayer dollars. When people can get a resource for less than the cost of delivering it, they use it with less discretion. And the prices of the things they produc…
> The market is the only mechanism that can allocate scarce resources equitably.
The market allocates according to ability/willingness to pay. This is perfectly fine in general, but doesn't work so well when "ability" enters the picture for something considered a necessity.