Here are the errors 3L sees in the environmental movement:
Treating the symptoms, not the cause: The root cause of plastic pollution, industrial/GHG emissions, eutrophication(algae blooms from fertilizers), sewage, mine tailings, PFAS, etc. is our failure to protect PROPERTY RIGHTS. Environmental taxes and subsidies fail to address the cause and then violate property rights again! Wildlife populations globally have halved in the past 40 years. The existing approaches evidently donât work and are despised because people resent being coerced.
Advocating âde-growthâ: âInfinite growth is impossible on a finite planetâ - tell that to 3.5bn years ofevolution. Energy is abundant, as is intelligence (although IntellectualProperty laws do create an artificial scarcity of good ideas⌠ironically!).Growth is a feature of nature. Itâs how life gets more of what it needs to survive and thrive with less energy input. Itâs why child mortality is 4% today instead of 50% just 200 years ago. To be anti-growth is to be anti-life. HoweverâŚ
Tolerance of monopoly fiat currency: Fiat currencies (money that is government-enforced rather than backed by something of value) are inflated to fund government spending. Because all democracies on earth currently fail to outlaw aggression, we should expect money printing to be abused to win votes (see Trumpâs promise to hand out $5k to each US citizen if Republicans win the mid-terms). This inflation incentivizes consumption today instead of saving for tomorrow, which artificially stimulates economic activity. So, the intuition that there is âtoo much growthâ is not unsubstantiated. Taxes are demanded in these fiat currencies, requiring us to participate in this overly caffeinated economy.This money-printing is also what allows governments to bail out failed businesses (âmoral hazardâ, where gains are privatized and losses are socialized). Without being forced to adopt inflated currencies, consumption would fall, and recessions would be a natural way of weeding out bad businesses, like winter in nature.
Hating the players, not the game: Humans have the power to be beautifully creative stewards of the planet. But if the rules permit pollution, as they partially do today, we should despise those rules, not the polluters that play within those rules.
Solutions:
Treat the cause: outlaw aggression (including pollution) â no exceptions for individuals, groups, corporations or governments. We do not seek arsonists to put our fires out, nor should we empower aggressors to fix our pollution problems. Instead, we can rely on the common law, which, having evolved over thousands of years, already solves for pollution via tort law that recognizes trespass as an invasion of property rights. (In the podcast, I mistakenly said âcivil lawsâ were the top down arbitrary laws â I meant to say âstatutory lawsâ). It does not matter which technologies are adopted, or how we use fossil fuels, if no harm is done to others is done in the process â let the market do its thing.
Allow growth: If itâs not harming anyone, allow it! This same principle applies to all activities, whether environmental, social or economic. While economic freedom allows innovators to make the economy more efficient, it doesnât mean you personally have to be a capitalist. In fact, when voluntary kindness replaces coercive taxation and when regulations are limited to preventing aggression, a simple life of self-subsistence on marginal land becomes possible where currently it isnât.
Allow recessions: Let bad businesses fail. Removing coercion from the economy ends the problems of artificially stimulated consumption and moral hazard. Yes, this will be painful, much like the headache one gets from quitting coffee. There is no pain-free option.
Lovehumans, despise any game that legalizes coercion: Recognise youragency to re-write the rules â where else should we draw the line of the law other than protection of each humanâs equal right to live free from aggression?âProsperous or sustainableâ isa false dichotomy. Humans are not a plague on the planet â we simply fail, fornow, to outlaw aggression. Itâs a simple fix with profound consequences.
