Re:Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you re...
by Spivak on Monday January 30, 2023 @10:51AM
(#34581294)
And even stronger, everyone is and should be like this. Everything takes energy and I bet almost everything in your house is technically unnecessary and for your comfort. Trying to police all uses of energy into good/bad is just a reflection of your own preferences of the things you can personally live without without too much of a quality of life drop.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you re...
by bumby on Monday January 30, 2023 @11:19AM
(#34581839)
If everyone gets to decide and spend to their own independent value system, can you agree that externalities should at least be priced in?
Re:Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you re...
by aisengard on Monday January 30, 2023 @11:32AM
(#34582134)
We price in externalities all the time. A lot of the time it's priced in as the cost of complying with government regulation, like food safety and labeling. Other times it's priced in the other direction, like subsidies for green energy or particular crops (corn/ethanol). We just don't necessarily price them appropriately, or in a way that some people may think is accurate, but we certainly don't ignore the concept of externalities.
Re:Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you re...
by bumby on Monday January 30, 2023 @11:46AM
(#34582392)
Absolutely. I wasn’t making case that we are always ignoring them. But I think there are some subset of cases where we don’t price them in proportionally to consumption. One example apropos to this thread is pricing in atmospheric carbon (or the externalities of extracting/protecting those resources). Based on your reply, I’m assuming you think regulation is a suitable way pricing in externalities?