Quote:
Originally Posted by CandleInTheDark
And it could have been done faster and less costly with market means and economic incentives. Regulations do work. By they do it poorly, with nowhere near the speed and cost effectiveness of an established system of property rights, an effective civil law system, economic incentives, innovative tax structures, and other decentralized measure. At the same time they are not coercive, and leave people free to choose, rather than giving the government more power.
In the USA, the effectiveness of your litigious culture has saved the environment. Had people not been able to sue government for not following its own laws, or individuals and corporations for violating their property rights, you would not have the same quality of environment.
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With all due respect, I think you need to read up on the US environmental policies of the past 30 years.
The quality of the environment was deteriorating at a significant and steady rate from the industrial revolution through the 1970s as a result of the free market; the regulations made the difference.
Even the industries that vocally opposed the regs at the time and predicted enonomic armageddon - auto industry, petro-chemical industry, agri-business, etc - now acknowledge they were wrong.