Re:California Covid-19 traffic report finds silver lining
by jfoster on Sunday April 19, 2020 @02:48AM
(#22914065)
But the assumptions in many of them were made a long time ago and don't necessarily apply anymore. In the case of air pollution for example, there probably exists a price that could be paid to significantly reduce it and improve the overall health of everyone.
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Re:California Covid-19 traffic report finds silver lining
by thawaway1837 on Sunday April 19, 2020 @10:03AM
(#22915968)
The issue is that the price is paid by a set of people who are different from the people who benefit from this.
And the people who benefit are the ones in power, whereas the ones who suffer are the ones without power.
So the trade offs are largely not accepted because they are acceptable to society at large, but because the people who have the power to make the decisions are insulated from it.
In the US wealth is a decent proxy for power, so this claim can actually easily be quantified.
Simply draw maps correlating the wealth of a neighborhood with the adverse effect being discussed. Whether it’s air pollution levels, or it’s deaths due to car accidents, or mercury in water, or lead in walls, it will invariably be the case the problem correlated strongly with the wealth of the area.