21–30 of 92 posts
In the forth quarter of 2018, 46.89 million iPhones were sold worldwide. That's just the iPhones. Wouldn't it be great if products from Apple were easier to repair or upgrade instead of encouraging consumers to buy the latest model? It would also make it easier to recycle. How much mining would that prevent?
So what happens to old iPhones? Hard to believe they are all in a dump somewhere.
The eternal problem of externalities. They ought to be priced into the cost of the rare earths, but doing so means you lose out to your less scrupulous competitors.
Pricing externalities has become such a common comment. Does anyone know good examples (family led also, but successful mostly) of pricing externalities? I mean the alternative is regulation and/or legislation. Those work pretty well when a reasonable (ie production still happens) of harmful processes/methods. Eg banning CFCs in certain products. I know of examples where these were deployed. Tldr: what is the best, b…
Perhaps it’s churlish to mention, but... China was happy to ignore environmental standards in order to corner the market in rare earth minerals. American miners couldn’t compete because they were already “internalizing” the environmental costs, and were priced out of the market. Once China had put everyone else out of business (and blocked foreign businesses from mining inside China), it started not only reducing out…
> Environmental experts and local officials say the cost of the cleanup should not be shouldered by the Chinese government alone.
The Chinese companies and government knew what they were doing and benefited greatly from their actions. I would argue that they are exactly the ones that should be shouldering the the cost... alone.
In the forth quarter of 2018, 46.89 million iPhones were sold worldwide. That's just the iPhones. Wouldn't it be great if products from Apple were easier to repair or upgrade instead of encouraging consumers to buy the latest model? It would also make it easier to recycle. How much mining would that prevent?
So what happens to old iPhones? Hard to believe they are all in a dump somewhere.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pricing externalities has become such a common comment. Does anyone know good examples (family led also, but successful mostly) of pricing externalities? I mean the alternative is regulation and/or legislation. Those work pretty well when a reasonable (ie production still happens) of harmful processes/methods. Eg banning CFCs in certain products. I know of examples where these were deployed. Tldr: what is the best, b…
I think we hear a lot of them but don't see them in practice because it would reduce profits. It's like any other solution to a problem of capitalism. Regarding regulation: something like a carbon tax is arguably pricing-in of an externality, but mandated by the government. That's actually what I think of when I suggest this, because I don't expect captialist actors to deal with these problems without being forced to…
Carbon tax is the biggest question on the table. A lot of economists like it because theory. I'm skeptical, tbh, even of quasi-dynamic versions (like taxing fuel), and I tend to think taxes/subsidies (for example) on the purchase of vehicles would work better.
Open to have my mind changed though, hence the question. Where have laws been used to successfully create externality price system?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I really wanna see is both negative and positive externalities. It feels like we are always only including negative externalities when we talk about things we don't like and positive when it's things we do like. We should always look at both sides.
The entire point of business and trade is to capture value from positive externalities, its delivered value is extremely apparent.
In the forth quarter of 2018, 46.89 million iPhones were sold worldwide. That's just the iPhones. Wouldn't it be great if products from Apple were easier to repair or upgrade instead of encouraging consumers to buy the latest model? It would also make it easier to recycle. How much mining would that prevent?
So what happens to old iPhones? Hard to believe they are all in a dump somewhere.
The eternal problem of externalities. They ought to be priced into the cost of the rare earths, but doing so means you lose out to your less scrupulous competitors.
Pricing externalities has become such a common comment. Does anyone know good examples (family led also, but successful mostly) of pricing externalities? I mean the alternative is regulation and/or legislation. Those work pretty well when a reasonable (ie production still happens) of harmful processes/methods. Eg banning CFCs in certain products. I know of examples where these were deployed. Tldr: what is the best, b…
This isn't an alternative, this is precisely how you price in externalities. No company in a competitive market will do it of its own volition, when it has no reason to (no punishment) and every reason against (competition).
Looking from a different perspective: an externality happens when a transaction between two parties has a hidden third party that is made to pay the price without gaining anything from it. That third party usually is "society at large", or "some subpopulation within society at large". The role of the government is to be a representative of the society. A regulatory measure like e.g. carbon tax is essentially the government stepping in on behalf of the society and saying "if you want me to accept all this negative value, you have to compensate me for it fairly". It's a proper market mechanism.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Capitalism 101, get rich by plundering the earth (and leave someone else to clean up the mess). Mining is a truly nasty business, and not just environmentally. No small problem is that of assigning value to a clean environment, or to sustainable practises. ETS anyone?
You are most likely using products based on mining to write that comment. Doesn't that make you complicit if we are to follow your hard stance here?
The eternal problem of externalities. They ought to be priced into the cost of the rare earths, but doing so means you lose out to your less scrupulous competitors.
Pricing externalities has become such a common comment. Does anyone know good examples (family led also, but successful mostly) of pricing externalities? I mean the alternative is regulation and/or legislation. Those work pretty well when a reasonable (ie production still happens) of harmful processes/methods. Eg banning CFCs in certain products. I know of examples where these were deployed. Tldr: what is the best, b…