@dhyannada

I think the way I'd say it is that capitalist markets attach value to scarcity. Scarce things command a higher price. So where there is not scarcity, it must be created in order to profit from it.

A serious problem with capitalism is its reductionist nature. That is, it sees a problem that's a real problem and reduces it to a market model so that it can be reasoned about as a simple matter of maximizing profit. But the people doing it really don't care about the original profit. They subscribe to the greed-is-good and disingenuously presume that all relevant variables are encoded such that it's fair for them to simply maximize profit.

But then they find they can profit better by regulatory capture or exploiting externalities than by solving the original problem because no one has made a specific rule against it. And so the regulatory capture part makes sure that rules aren't made against regulatory capture or externalities, which assures that capitalism will continue to distract itself making profit and never really even trying to solve many of the biggest problems we have.

Capitalism is, at its best, merely an optimization engine. But if not programmed with boundary conditions, it will generate nonsensical solutions, as any mathematical optimization system would. Morality must be one of the boundaries. It is a mistake and an active attack on society to assert that morality must not be encoded in law. Even Adam Smith suggested that it had to be put there, because it would not be otherwise discovered. As I recall, he pretty much expected that capitalists unfettered by boundary laws would become tyrants.

As to the finite nature of the world and its resources, I refer you to my 2019 essay Losing Ground in the Environment, which I think sums things up more neatly than I could quickly do here.

http://netsettlement.blogspot.com/2019/09/losing-ground-in-environment.html

#capitalism #markets #intellectualProperty #science #knowledge #externalities

Stop logging native forests in a climate and biodiversity emergency Pt 2

It is not ok to do industrial logging in a biodiversity crisis.
It is not ok to kill our atmosphere
It is not ok to kill the diversity of life on the planet.

Electrifying heavy-duty vehicles could reduce environmental inequalities
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-electrifying-heavy-duty-vehicles-environmental-inequalities.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01219-0
Camilleri, S.F., et al, Air quality, health and equity implications of electrifying heavy-duty vehicles, Nature Sustainability (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01219-0.

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/international-commitments
Australia is party to the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement came into force in 2016. It was a major step forward in international efforts to address climate chang

Climate Change Detection and Attribution?
https://archive.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch9s9-1-2.html

#FossiFuel #machinery #HDVs #trucks #pollution #exposure AirQuality #externalities #OneHealth #NSWLogging #logging #BellingLogging #Bellingen #RosesRoad #GlenifferRoad #Climate #GHG #SaveTuckersNob

@buermann

If we could just force a public discussion of why a company, any company, that is making money hand-over-fist needs ANY government susidy, that would be useful.

But then especially one that the government itself has committed to phasing out because its actions are injuring humanity's chance to survive...

(At minimum, any such subsidy should be tied to specific goals of reduced net revenue due specifically to diminished market share against non-carbon-based renewables.)

Ah, to hear those arguments aloud...

#capitalism #subsidy #FossilFuels #renewables #sustainability #PublicDebate #oil #taxation #externalities

Speaking of negative #externalities, what should gov’ts do when they discover a new one? One way is to take a page from the federal Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972 and study the problem, work with manufacturers on solutions, regulate the bad actors and certify the good ones. We see parts of this playbook as NYC tries stop batteries in e-bikes and e-scooters from setting off deadly fires. https://www.nytimes.com/article/ebike-laws-nyc.html #publicsafety

A safe space for the sober: One of gov’t’s responsibilities is dealing with negative #externalities caused by legal activities. We are now legalizing pot, which is sure to fuel its use among college students. So here’s an externality lawmakers haven’t considered: What impact will greater marijuana use on campuses have on 19-year-olds who are in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse? https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/08/17/hidden-in-plain-sight-u-of-m-pressured-to-create-space-for-sober-students

One of the great evils of #capitalism is #externalities, that is pushing costs, money or #environmental, onto others.

From: @info_activism
https://mastodon.cc/@info_activism/110830787225080044

A fatal story in 3 charts.

The stat I keep reciting in this context: "SUVs kill >4 people outside the vehicle for every passenger they save."

Has anyone done the detailed causality analysis? Anyone up for joining forces on it?

#cars #cycling #bike #externalities #economics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/how-to-read-this-chart/ @pbump

#externalities, man, how do they work?

What's that? Taxpayers will clean up the mess? Oh ok then.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cost-of-california-oil-cleanup-exceeds-industry-profits

"People in York are wondering why [they] have to accommodate metropolitan #rubbish...A 20 to 60-million-tonne shortage of #landfill space in WA by 2050. EPA recommends approval of new landfill site for Perth's #waste near historic WA town of York
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-27/epa-recommends-environmental-approval-for-york-landfill/102387866
#Consuming #Externalities #Contamination #Groundwater #AntiProductCrisis

https://www.economicsobservatory.com/how-have-economists-thought-about-the-environment
Environmental problems are complex and require insights from across the sciences & social sciences to address them. While #pollution occurs across all types of economic systems, there is a tendency to blame pollution on #capitalism and associate it with economic #growth, but studies have shown an "inverse U"-shaped relationship.
#sustainability #Externalities #NaturalCapital #Economics

“The development of many tremendously beneficial #technologies is being hindered by the prohibitively high research and development #costs of advanced materials, and the massive amount of human resources needed to #accelerate the development of these #materials and #technologies.”

“Using our proprietary #MachineLearning #algorithms, we are able to explore potentials that would have taken centuries just a few years ago. This accelerates any company's greatest asset: efficiency.”

There is great potential and also risks. Can you think of the externalities using #AI to create profit here? ¥

#AI / #costs / #externalities #WhiteCollar <https://genmat.xyz/> / <https://genmat.xyz/solutions-technology>
¥ power use, employment ?

On May 19th @jakob is going to talk about Externalities.

Using a Wardley Map how these externalities affect the companies and an example of a company leading that change

Discover more about Jakob and register 👇
https://wardleymapsforbusiness.com/welcome/jakob/

#wardleymaps #externalities #strategy

Why are oats from Te Wai Pounamu costing half again as much as oats from Australia? Maybe because the importers are externalising environmental cost of the carbon emissions involved in bringing them into the country onto the global public. We are paying them a subsidy by absorbing that cost, at a disadvantage to local growers. This seems short-sighted.

#ClimateChange #CarbonEmissions #externalities #groceries

Also applicable to #renewables. Who cares about the #externalities of solar panel, batteries and windmill production? As long as it happens somewhere in Congo, China etc. not many people care.
Who cares about solar panel #recycling? We'll figure that one out "later" 🙄

@LeftistLawyer @ParanoidFactoid #Externalities is one of the most underrated concepts in economics!

* An #economy is what we build together.

* Society is how we choose to live, work, govern, and thereby build together.

* Technology is a lever we use to achieve this impact at scale.

* “We” refers especially to the people and institutions holding #power

* “We” is plural because power is a networked phenomenon.

* What we “choose” to build includes unintended consequences, #gametheory effects, and #externalities.

* Incentives matter; wish-casting won't get us anywhere.

Talking to a medico yesterday about my lifelong struggles with weight. His response?

"Me too. [shrug] Sixty percent of the U.S. population is obese."

Look. If a few of us are too fat, it may well be our faults. But if millions are too fat?

We're pathologizing problems arising from a system (agribusiness, food processing & marketing) that might as well have been specifically designed to make it so.

#Obesity #Externalities #VivaLaRevolution

#Externalities are amazing. We can just decide not to count something, and then claim because we don’t or can’t count it, we can’t be held accountable for it. Then it’s just a quick step over from “out of our control” to “not our problem” and voila - consequence free #innovation!

China mobility issue has many parallels w/ Uber & its early unregulated days of routing car drivers through residential streets, decreasing pedestrian/child safety, and increasing road wear issues for weight loads side streets were not designed for. "#Externalities" #mediaecology
---
RT @AiControversy
ChatGPT is causing actual, demonstrable harm.

Two real-world examples, from recent days, in Germany and China:

@madhumita29 @GaryM…
https://twitter.com/AiControversy/status/1630889676541157376

@Mastodon @GittaPeyn
Which takes me to a glossary of 'systems theory' which belongs with the ignorance of despotism to not include #sustainability #environment #externalities but to beat down a society for ideological conformity. Sexuality or considering people as individuals with imagination, let alone art that makes civilisation - not a mention.