1. Why don’t all peoples form neat, orderly lines?
2. Japan will label carbon footprints for many items
3. Charles Mann, on our eroding supply of dirt and the economics of soil. I am a big fan of Mann (he wrote the superb 1491) and this is one of the best magazine pieces of this year if not the best. On top of all the good economics in this piece, learn how the "black revolution" — putting carbon in the soil — may solve agricultural problems and alleviate global warming at the same time. Hat tip to Kottke.
4. The latest: "Chile’s lower house of congress has suspended plans to boost a $1,626 gasoline subsidy for each of its members."
5. Vegan-libertarian debate and discussion
6. The new Neil Stephenson book
In Cuba there is a kind of virtual line. You just ask for “el ultimo?” ( “the last?”) and the last person in the line raises his hand. You know exactly your place when the line moves and you do not have to wait standing up. It is an excellent system for long lines.
Decades of Castro’s dictatorship have lead to something useful after all.
Interested to see that the Japanese are labeling for carbon. I’m reading “Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Changing Seafood” right now, and he makes some sad points about how the Japanese are not too concerned about eating ethically. Don’t have the book in front of me, but he cited a survey (WWF?) that said that maybe 5% of seafood buyers factor in sustainability.
Labeling rules can make sense with respect to things that directly affect the buyer like nutrition, purity, ingredients, quality, certification, safety, contract terms, and of course, price. A self-interested buyer can make better decisions when the relevant information is clearly presented.
However, it’s less clear that labeling is the solution for internalizing externalities like carbon footprints, sustainability, etc. Self-interested buyers will not automatically internalize those costs, even if they know all about them. That’s the definition of externalities.
Hence, for externalities like carbon footprints, Pigouvian taxes or assignment of property rights (where feasible) are likely to be better solutions.
Except that a consumer, if given a choice between two otherwise identical products but with one product having the lower carbon footprint, will very likely choose the one with a lower carbon footprint.
Also, because having a lower carbon footprint can have a huge effect for consumers on the margins of purchasing a product, producers would compete to have lower carbon footprints.
The real problem is: how do you effectively measure carbon footprint for a product? That is such a complex task, with a lot of ambiguity in many cases, that it could probably be easily gamed by the unscrupulous.
“this is one of the best magazine pieces of this year if not the best”
You’ve read every magazine piece written this year to know that this is one of the best if not the best? Impressive!
Even Later from Chile:
“Ministro de Hacienda anuncia plan de US$1.000 millones para combatir la inflación y dar un impulso al crecimiento. La iniciativa incluye reducción transitoria del impuesto especÃfico a las gasolinas …” (http://www.hacienda.cl/prensa.php?opc=showContenido&id=12955&nav_id=10287&contar=1&tema_id=&code=saNK0IDctC3gI)
So while congressmen won’t get their subsidy increased, the government is adopting John McCain’s gas tax holiday to try to keep prices down. Won’t be saving much gas this way.
Thanks for the tip about Stephenson’s book. He is my favorite hard SF writer today. I have the book placed on hold at the Fairfax library.
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