Markets, etc.

You may or may not have noticed that a couple of weeks back I dropped 'The Commons Blog' from my blog roll. While I agreed with their basic stance that if externalities were included then the market would produce solutions to the environmental issues we have, I started to find that the global warming denialism and rose-tinted view of current environmental realities got too much to stomach: esentially I had an allergic reaction to right-wing market libertarianism, I guess. Interesting then to find this article critiquing the 'commoners' approach in terms of the romantic image they purvey of the owner forgetting the corporation: "despite their [ie the corporations'] legal status as individuals, they have no self. Of course corporations plan for the future, but in contrast to individuals, they are biased heavily toward short-term profit. The individuals that compose them at any given moment are under huge pressure to raise profits -- for good reason, as corporations who are not growing are eaten by others that are. A corporation does not know if it will exist in 10 years, or 5. For a corporation, the future itself is part of the commons, and yes, the result is often tragedy."

Markets, etc. | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist Magazine: