external costs

Plastic packaging is swamping the world with refuse that never degrades and flows into mountains of trash in land dumps and pollutes the oceans. For example, the bottled water industry produces over 50 billion bottles per year for the American market alone. Roughly 38 billion are not recycled and end --->> read more -->>

Heart Stents, Tricycles, and an Argument for Consumer Protections (Regulations) A staple of Republican and many Democratic politicians is to bemoan government regulations. These intrusions on individual liberty and free markets are claimed to be part of the giant regulatory state that chokes off innovation, initiative, and competition. The need --->> read more -->>

The Future of Bitcoin and Blockchain Technologies UPDATE 1/22/2018 While watching a football game over the weekend this ad from IBM was shown several times. At the very end you hear the word “blockchain”. IBM is in the blockchain business? A visit to the IBM website reveals that they are --->> read more -->>

The American food industry led the way in the 20th century with the introduction of processed foods that feature lots of salt, sugar (including refined white flour) and fat converted into products that launched us on the earliest mass experiments with obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other chronic illnesses. The promotion --->> read more -->>

Capitalism is driven by a single internal logic that requires the transformation of people and nature into commodities to produce profits. This logic is amoral and the system, excepting for external controls by government and social institutions, just churns on. Despite the enormous increase in the economic output over the --->> read more -->>

Companies must externalize as many costs as possible in free-market capitalism. Without adequate government protections you will end up with this kind of environment. from the New York Times: Nearly 14,000 Companies in China Violate Pollution Rules By EDWARD WONG “Environmental inspectors in northern China have found that nearly 14,000 companies, or --->> read more -->>

The May 3rd post “Unbelievable” on our favorite local blog GossipsOfRivertown.blogspot.com caught our attention. This F.H.Stickles concrete truck dumping waste concrete next to a stream running into the Hudson River is a local demonstration of one of the central laws of capitalism. For more pictures of this incident go here. --->> read more -->>

Ever since Ronald Reagan told us in his 1981 Inaugural Address, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” government bashing by right-wingers, Republicans and many Democrats has been a constant drumbeat of political rhetoric. Now we have Trump with his “Kill 2 regulations for every --->> read more -->>