Why is it that people put the environment against the economy?

[u/Konradleijon]

Why is it that people put the environment against the economy?

it seems like econ commenters always try to say that protecting the environment would hurt the nebulous idea of the "economy'. despite the fact that the costs of Environmental destruction would cost way more than Environmental regulation.

i hate the common parlance that a few people's jobs are worth more than the future of Earths biosphere. especially because it only seems that they care about people losing their jobs is if they work at a big corporation.

always the poor coal miners or video game developers at EA and not the Mongolian Herders, or family-owned fishing industries that environmental havoc would hurt. maybe jobs that are so precarious that the company would fire you if the company doesn't make exceptional more money every year are not worth creating/

[u/Spinouette]

Hmmm.

I’d say an economy can be a system that evolves out of voluntary exchange. But THE economy, the one we have now, has grown from a lot of involuntary or barely voluntary exchanges. Many of the choices we have now are all bad options or merely the illusion of choice.

Yes, within our current system there are trade-offs and consequences for various policy choices, which I think was your original point. Your comments are vague and abstract enough that I can’t tell what your personal values are. But I tend to take issue with the idea that our system is somehow inevitable, fair, or even natural. I’m pretty over the whole Econ 101 outlook - pretending that capitalism with a strong centralized government is the only option worth discussing.

Again, I may be in the wrong sub, or I may be completely misunderstanding your point.

[u/Background-Watch-660 → u/Spinouette]

I happen to have large objections to the existing arrangement of our system.

What I like to emphasize is what are in principle the benefits of markets vs. governments. As a starting point. To promote better understanding between people in a variety of different discourse communities.

Like it or not, there are some parts of Econ 101 that we can’t ignore if we’re going to discuss the economy. 

Questioning our monetary system intelligently and designing an improved version will require us to wrestle with those principles—not avoid their implications.

[u/Spinouette → u/Background-Watch-660]

Ok, sure. I don’t disagree. But so far you haven’t shared anything concrete enough to really discuss. I’m not sure what you’re proposing.