Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe?

Re:Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? by JamesBarney on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @01:08PM (#18186850)

As a stockholders my incentive is to increase my net worth. I do this by investing in companies that produce profits and grow. Now if inflation was to be lowered to 1% or 0% why would I stop being interested in growing companies and getting richer?

And while increasing regulations on climate change would be costly, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of stopping GDP growth and would harms tons of individuals who would find it harder to find a job and provide for their family.

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Re:Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? by vitro on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @03:34PM (#18188148)

Richer only for the sake of being rich? After certain threshold, more money doesn't change your lifestyle much, does it? Yes, you can get better, faster cars, but that is just greed in particular, ignorance in general. Hint, you don't NEED that.

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Re:Ask HN: What can be done to prevent a climate catastrophe? by JamesBarney on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @05:28PM (#18189089)

I think you misread my comment. It was not about need but about incentives. Specifically that changing inflation doesn't change incentives. And removing growth from an economy is far more expensive way to prevent climate change than something like a carbon tax.

If you are arguing the easiest fix to climate change is to convince everyone to stop being interested in increasing their material wealth. That seems like a hell of an uphill battle. Orders of magnitude harder than passing a really high carbon tax.

P.S. getting rich is usually not the terminal goal, but a means to financial security for the middle class, and status for the upper class.

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