3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3B

Re:3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3B by adrianN on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @03:07AM (#34077940)

Calculate the hidden cost. Tell the companies that you'll either vote for a tax or accept a lucrative post in their board of directors after your term is over. Profit!

Calculate the hidden cost. Spend half of the cost on a marketing campaign to sway public opinion against a tax. Profit!

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Re:3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3B by worldsayshi on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @03:20AM (#34078043)

Maybe one way to mitigate is to have a separate branch of the political system dedicated to calculating the costs. Then make the methods for calculating as publicly available as possible so that they can be reproduced by non-profits.

We have managed judicial systems. We can manage this too.

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Re:3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3B by adrianN on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @03:29AM (#34078100)

I don't see how that helps. For example there are many publications available that calculate the cost of CO2, eg [1] from the German government. Yet global warming is still a problem.

[1] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/14...

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Re:3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3B by worldsayshi on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @03:47AM (#34078181)

Dictatorships are still a problem too. But it's not because we don't know what the alternative looks like.

Figuring out what the alternative should look like is a big challenge but let's not pretend that that is the main issue here.

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Re:3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3B by sitkack on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @05:10AM (#34078764)

You used to be able to trust the GAO and NIST to calculate these things.

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