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andrewclunn | 10 months ago

So if I own stock in a company that purchases materials that use a mining process that pollutes... I am therefore responsible for that pollution? I mean what about the people who buy my product then? I wonder what percentage of academics are responsible for tenuous studies meant to push a political agenda?

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priced_in|10 months ago

You mean if I buy a stolen TV I actively participate in motivating the TVs to be stolen? If that's the case, they should make it illegal to buy stolen TV in the first place (hint: it is illegal)

ty6853|10 months ago

I think the more common scenario is something like "I bought R410 refrigerant so my elderly parents would not die during the next heat spell, knowing that these A/C appliances typically end in a leak or release event, meaning some kid in India gets the downstream effect of greenhouse emissions instead of me."

zahlman|10 months ago

I don't think this is at all comparable, and I think GP is being unfairly dismissed.

ty6853|10 months ago

Yes, but this is the kind of thing Kaczynski wrote about in his manifesto. If you don't produce the product using the externality heavy process that reduces the cost, someone else will, and put you out of business. The whole economic system demands it, it is unavoidable. USA mostly solves this by just offloading the problem onto China.

That is why some people argue for a more capitalist system where the referee of industry job is to make sure businesses pay for externalities, enabling free trade rather than just shitting on the next guy.

akudha|10 months ago

On one hand, it feels pointless for someone like me to be environmentally conscious - no matter how hard I try, I won't be able to pollute even one millionth of pollution that people like Zuck are going to cause. But I am living on this planet too, so it is my responsibility too, to be environmentally conscious (no matter how little practical effect it has).

In the end though, the only thing we can control (to some extent) is our own consumption...

amanaplanacanal|10 months ago

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much political support in pricing externalities into the cost of products, even though that would be the most efficient "free market" way to solve the problem.

HDThoreaun|9 months ago

Neutralizing externalities is an essential part of the capitalist system. Markets with heavy externalities are not free markets.

delusional|10 months ago

Is that not true to some extent? I've always accepted that when I buy a pair of trousers that's a tacit support for child labor in Bangladesh, since I know it takes place.

I know this sounds extreme. For sure my part in it is way smaller than the CEO of H&M, but I do take part in the system.

zahlman|10 months ago

> For sure my part in it is way smaller than the CEO of H&M, but I do take part in the system.

I think it's completely the responsibility of the child's employer (or whatever other term you deem appropriate), and I've never understood why others feel differently.

TechDebtDevin|10 months ago

So because you're not the only one to blame you shouldn't be blamed at all??? lmfao