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eastbound 2 hours ago

That’s a perverse incentive against ecology, case in point. Hear me out. We take citizen’s money to subsidize energy so they can get their energy for cheaper (at marginal level - while still paying the subsidy’s taxes) so they can undertake industrial/residential projects that we wouldn’t do with less energy. In a word, we incentive people to consume more (in a consumerist sense), which is bad for ecology, because we can’t afford them, and neither can the Earth.

Of course, leaving aside how petroleum is subsidized [through the department of defense].

While ecologists usually are in favor of subsidies, subsidies incentive people to consume more, which exhausts our Earth. We should develop less, i.e. we should develop in accordance with a higher facial cost of energy, which sometimes implies having a smaller home and fewer industries, which is what would happen if we didn’t sponsor solar or wind energy [or coal or fossil].

master-lincoln 2 hours ago | parent [-]

won't happen with capitalism which has an emphasis on economic growth forever...

carlosjobim 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Economic growth also comes from getting more for less.

A company can increase their profits by growing and increasing both what they spend and what they earn. But a company can also increase their profits by reducing what they spend without decreasing what they earn. Almost all companies are constantly trying to do this.

giglamesh 32 minutes ago | parent [-]

Often (usually?) by requiring workers to do more for less pay. Automation will eventually solve this problem, but because of the need to increase profits, finding an alternative way for companies to economically support human life the way they traditionally have through employment will be a tough nut to crack.

victorbjorklund 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Does the env work better in a communist country like North Korea? Or in the Soviet Union? Or are we gonna do no true Scotsman and say Soviet was always capitalist and had no connection to communism?

master-lincoln 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Absolutely irrelevant derailing. No claim was made about communist countries...

microgpt 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Fable can answer all your questions.