A Tower for Energy and Cleaning the Air, But...

> I beg to differ, pollution credits *would be* a wonderful idea, if the
> world
> wasn't the corrupted messy place that it is. Unfortunately the western
> industrialized countries, Japan and the few other places who would be
> buying
> those credits are the only place where pollution limits can be (and in
> fact
> are) enforced. Trading credits with third world countries where is
> impossible to enforce and even monitor what's going on is simply a way
> to
> allow to pay for the polluting more, which is a bit beyond the point
> of what
> emission limits are meant to do.

This is no different than the current situation. By allowing pollution
credits to be traded individual countries can manage their own
contribution to pollution in a way that minimizes the negative impact
on industry. The alternative of having some central planner set quotas
is horribly inefficient, and harms the economy without helping the
environment.

> Don't forget that the second main reason why all industry is being
> relocated
> to so called "developing" countries is that in this way they avoid
> having to
> pay extra for all those stupid regulations those silly
> environmentalists who
> are so stupid they worry about the world after they will be dead have
> lobbied for.

So make it easier for them to stay by giving them a means of managing
their pollution in a way that allows for innovation.

> The first of course is that they can put people at work there
> without any form of social protection, in conditions that amount to
> little
> more than slavery, no safety, no responsibilities, no unions, no
> worries.
>
I think you overstate the case a bit. There are certainly manufacturers
moving overseas for the low labor costs, and some of them are
exploitative, but some are paying a very good wage by local standards.
Many US telephone service hotlines are routed to call centers in India,
for example - the people there get about 1/4 the wage of comparable
workers in the US, but the cost of living is more like 1/10th of the
US, so it's a pretty damn good wage.

I understand the red/green hostility towards corporatism, but
corporations are powerful entities for improving production and
material well being. They can be harmful, but they are no more
intrinsically harmful than an Ox. They need to be harnessed to the
general good, and you don't harness an Ox by killing it (at least not
if you plan on getting any work out of it :-)

......Andrew