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global economic player helps the poor

cloudtrapezer (756 posts) • 0

Not saying the conclusions are invalid but it looks a lot like churnalism.

Geezer (1953 posts) • 0

Pollution is an economic problem and pollution abatement is a cost of doing business. Unfortunately it is a current cost with long term or future benefits not readily measured.

I worked out a class participation exercise for Chinese business students in response to a demand I use a "game" while teaching Accounting. The exercise required students to collectively make decisions, as owners, for a fictional company. The inputs were company growth, sales, profits, pollution abatement costs, effects of pollution and compliance with regulation.

Over multiple classes, the company grows, sales and profits increase and the pollution byproduct increases, the effects of the pollution affects children and grows worse, the costs of abatement rise and eventually government regulations are added.

After running this exercise in 4th year and post grad classes for a total of six classes, I stopped.

Not once, no matter the horror the produced by the pollution was the cost abatement accepted. Profits and only profits was the driving metric. Even when I said "your own child" was getting sick the collective decision was to avoid abatement cost so profits could continue to increase. This was justified by moving the wife and kid away from the danger.

Today there is enough information on pollution to pretty much exclude ignorance as a cause. Pollution is the result of economic decisions. Full stop.

The article referenced above mentions environmental issues. Better the other guy's kid dies I guess. Troop movement is faster by train and cheaper if you can get the other guy to help pay for the tracks.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

If it helps the poor, this is incidental. However, as pointed out by the previous poster, there is a flip side in the medium to long term.

The investors only look at cost/benefit in financial terms. In fact all of the stakeholders (governments, local populations, etc.) will all have their own measures of cost/benefit.

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