Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Earth Day
We try to teach anyone within earshot that property rights beget exchange which begets prices which beget efficient allocations. Absent this, we have prisoners dilemma problems and inefficiencies. There are also the dynamics of remediation, e.g., political interventions (for the starry-eyed) or evolutions based on purposeful decentralized actions that beget wider and deeper markets (for those who look at history) -- if we can resist the former.Michael Pollan amplifies some of this ("Why bother?" ... being Green) over several thousand words in last Sunday's NY Times Magazine. But where does that get us? "Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me," is charming, a bit pietistic but ultimately misleading. That's what Earth Day has become.
