74 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
74 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
Capitalism, Right Libertarianism and the problem of "externalities?"
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by Gary Elkin
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Right libertarians have great difficulty in dealing with the problem of
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"externalities": that is, harmful environmental effects (e.g. pollution,
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global warming, ozone depletion, destruction of wildlife habitat) not
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counted as "costs of production" in standard methods of accounting. Such
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costs must be born by everyone in the society who is affected by them, and
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not only by the capitalists who produce them; hence it is possible for
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capitalist to ignore such effects when planning future production. But
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this means that such effects *will* be ignored, since competition forces
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firms to cut as many costs as possible and concentrate on short-term
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profits.
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Right libertarians typically address the problem of externalities by
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calling for public education which will raise people's awareness of
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ecological problems to the point where there will be enough demand for
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environment-friendly technologies and products that they will be
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profitable.
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This argument, however, ignores two crucially important facts: (1) that
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environment-friendly technologies and products *by themselves* are not
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enough to avert ecological disaster so long as capitalism retains its need
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for high growth rates (which it will retain because this need is inherent
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in the system); and (2) that in a right-libertarian world in which private
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property is protected by a "night-watchman State" or private security
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forces, a wealthy capitalist elite will still control education, as it does
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now -- and this because education is an essential indoctrination tool of
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the capitalist elite, needed to promote capitalist values and train a large
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population of future wage-slaves in proper habits of obedience to
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authority. For this reason, capitalists cannot afford to lose control of
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the educational system, no matter how much it costs them to maintain
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competitive schools. And this means that such schools will not teach
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students what is really necessary to avoid ecological disaster: namely,
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the dismantling of capitalism itself.
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Another ecological problem that right libertarians cannot deal with
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satisfactorily is that capitalist firms *must* be committed to short-term
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profitability rather than long-term environmental responsibility in order
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to survive economically in the competitive market .
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Here's an example: Suppose there are 3 automobile companies, X, Y, and Z,
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which are competitive (not conspiring to fix prices) and which exist in a
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right-libertarian society where there is no democratic community control
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over the economy. Then suppose that company X invests in the project of
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developing a non-polluting car within ten years. At the same time its
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competitors, Y and Z, will be putting their resources into increasing
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profits and market share in the coming days and months and over the next
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year. During that period, company X will be out of luck, for it will not
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be able to attract enough capital from investors to carry out its plans,
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since investment will flock to the companies that are most immediately
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profitable.
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The right libertarian may respond by arguing that business leaders are as
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able to see long-term negative environmental effects as the rest of us.
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But this is to misunderstand the nature of the objection. It is not that
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business leaders *as individuals* are any less able to see what's happening
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to the environment. It is that if they want to keep their jobs they have
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to do what the system requires, which is to concentrate on what is most
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profitable in the short term. Thus if the president of company X has a
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mystical experience of oneness with nature and starts diverting profits
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into pollution control while the presidents of Y and Z continue with
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business as usual, the stockholders of company X will get a new president
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who is willing to focus on short-term profits like Y and Z.
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In general, then, if one company tries to devote resources to develop
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products or processes that will save the environment, they will simply be
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undercut by other companies which are not doing so, and hence they won't be
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competitive in the market. In other words, capitalism has a built-in bias
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toward short-term gain, and this bias -- along with a built-in need for
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rapid growth -- means the planet will continue its free-fall toward
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ecological disaster so long as capitalism remains in place.
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