ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
- Political movement emerged to ensure all communities don't bear a disproportionate share of pollution
- The movement was called 'Environmental Justice Movement'
- Environmental justice advocates are working to ensure implementation of environmental laws
- Federal and state governments have enacted new laws and regulations designed to take into account, the concerns of environmental justice advocates.
- Remains to be seen if the governments will work to achieve environmental justice
- Not clear what the government can do about the problem regarding the cheap land
- Governments are beginning to find some of the answers
- If a steel producing company can minimize production cost by dumping waste for free, the company will do so.
- Since the cost of pollution clean up is considered not relevant
- Negative effects of pollution are: external costs that are passed on to our society and environment
- Supply curve is related to private production cost
- Product demand yields price and quantity
- Social curve adds external cost due to pollution.
- With curve included, it shows less steel should be produced at a higher price.
- Government could correct difference between private and social outcomes, by taxing companies for polluting.
- Tax revenue could be used to reduce pollution
- 1 would like to live in a world with 0 pollution
- Technology can't achieve that outcome at a reasonable economic level
- Necessary to determine a level of pollution reduction that is beneficial and cost efficient
- Social cost is relatively low
- As pollution reduction is nearing 100%, social cost rises dramatically
- Social benefit will be reduced as pollution reduction increases
- Optimal point occurs where the intersection is between the 2 curves
- As technology improves, social cost shifts outward which means it's practical to increase pollution reduction.
- Tax money used to 'create a better future'
- The country instead becomes broke
- Moving backwards like reducing the size of schools, the EPA, social security and medicare.
- 'Broke' story hides a much bigger story, a story of dumb choices being made for us, choices that work against us.
- Big chunk of the tax money goes to the military. ($726 billion in 2011)
- Spending billions on fighter planes and war with no end isn't honest.
- Hundreds of billions of money used to prop up the economy.
- Keeping the economy on life support when we could be doing something better
- Life supports comes in subsidies
- Subsidy is a giveaway that gives some companies a lift over others
- Problem is that the government is lifting companies that are dragging us down
- Everywhere in the economy, you will find subsidies.
- Tax subsidies excuse big corporations from contributing their fair share. These subsidies contribute to billions we should be collecting to put to good use.
- Risk transfer subsidies where government acts as an investment bank or an insurance company for corporations doing risky things.
- Freebie subsidies are where the government gives things that belong to us to corporations for cheap/free.
- Externalized costs are costs that aren't recognized and puts trillions including damage to environment, public health and climate.
- Without laws that make polluters pay, we all pay with loss of clean air and water.
- all the subsidies are handed out, there isn't enough to pay our bills and building a better future.
- Senators wanting to keep oil subsidies earned 5x more in big oil campaign cash than those who were against it.
- The 10 billion dollars spent on oil and gas subsidies for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
- We need to subsidize 0 waste and raising recycle rate to 75% will create new jobs
- Leaves billions to improve education