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A comment on “So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they think are unnecessary”. Parent comment

Re:“So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they... by SamReidHughes on Sunday March 22, 2015 @06:26PM (#9248520)
Glass to hold and transport milk is more of a waste than plastic. You can tell because the cost of using plastic is evidently lower.
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Re:“So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they... by robotresearcher on Sunday March 22, 2015 @08:54PM (#9248918)
Only if the costs of each are accurately encoding their externalities. There can be a long delay before this happens, if ever.
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Re:“So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they... by SamReidHughes on Sunday March 22, 2015 @10:12PM (#9249147)
No, not really. The externalities of the plastic is inconsequential. The externalities of glass are probably higher. Have you calculated them?
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Re:“So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they... by robotresearcher on Sunday March 22, 2015 @10:28PM (#9249185)
No. I'm guessing you haven't either, since no one can. Such confidence in the market. Is/was the market price of Thalidomide, asbestos and cigarettes also perfect?

edit: I'm not saying that Tetrapaks will turn out to be terrible, just pointing out that things are priced with complete ignorance of their eventual externalities.

And how is the cost of the plastic fragments in the ocean factored in in this example? It won't be zero in the long run.

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