
An Affordable Salvation - ph0rque
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/opinion/01krugman.html?_r=2
======
gaius
You can't do any of that without tariffs on imports from countries which don't
do it. So you get to choose, depression or bankruptcy (and then depression).

~~~
biohacker42
Good point. It's always either protect the environment and lose jobs or get
into a trade war and lose jobs, or don't protect the environment.

But what if we treat pollution the way we approach transportation and other
infrastructure?

Here's what I mean, we don't make FedEx pay for all the roads and bridges it
uses. The public pays for it, we all use it, everybody's better off.

So why doesn't the public pay for CO2 scrubbers and capture, and waste water
treatment and etc?

Obviously there's great danger of back door subsidies and corruption and that
might lead to trade wars. Doing it right wouldn't be easy, but surely it's
better then the choice of jobs vs. clean air?

~~~
cwan
Great idea. It's not so much treating pollution the way we approach
transportation/infrastructure as it is changing the way we approach
transportation/infrastructure. While the technology would have made it
impractical to implement, why wouldn't we but electronic tolling on all roads
on a pay per use basis? We could even privatize most of them. The whole reason
we have urban sprawl is because highways have been underpriced. One great
example is Hong Kong's MTR system that charges you based on where you started
in the system and where you got off. Incredibly convenient and efficient.
Heck, even China tolls practically all its highways.

That said I'm not sure this type of stuff will help us get out of a recession
but at least it makes people pay for the services that they use. We may even
get better roads and highways out of it if the owners of the roads (be they
governments or otherwise) are incentivized by the revenues from them because
they'd be better tracked.

~~~
biohacker42
I believe France relies heavily on private bridges, like here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_bridge>

