The social cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, considered the single most important measure in addressing the climate crisis, is generally defined as an estimate of societal damages, including health harms, resulting from unpaid or externalized GHG emissions. Researchers have been calculating this cost for several decades. Federal agencies began regularly incorporating the social cost of these emissions in 2008 — today, more than 80 federal regulations reflect its use.
Despite the fact that GHG emissions are defined as the greatest threat to human health this century, the social cost of the health care industry’s emissions has somehow escaped the interest of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Negative externality. "Privatize the gains, socialize the losses."
While not MMT directly, although it concerns MMT as a matter of accounting, the article is illustrative of the consequences of ignoring true cost in setting the market price. The result is negative externality, the cost of which falls on society.The Hill
The social costs of greenhouse gas emissions in health care are astounding — and we’ve been ignoring them completely
The social costs of greenhouse gas emissions in health care are astounding — and we’ve been ignoring them completely
David Introcaso
h/t Naked Capitalism
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/16/us-cold-weather-freezing-temperatures-photos
ReplyDeleteRhetoric about “greenhouse gas emissions” serves four main functions.
ReplyDelete[1] It boosts energy company profits by making energy scarcer. “We must reduce oil consumption!” This is why oil companies fund the “Just stop oil” miscreants.
[2] It lets big companies increase their monopolies by destroying smaller competitors. For example, Big Ag paid politicians in the Netherlands to declare that all small and medium-sized farms must be shut down because of “nitrogen” and “climate change.” Meanwhile the government protects the biggest companies.
[3] It lets government increase its tyranny and censorship. If you question “climate change,” or vaccine mandates, or unlimited immigration, or Israeli atrocities, or the J6 “insurrection,” or rigged elections, or men getting “pregnant,” etc-etc-etc, then you are guilty of “hate speech” and you must be silenced. No amount of censorship can ever be enough.
[4] It keeps the peasants at each other’s throats so they don’t unite against their owners. When half the peasants claim that the sky is falling because of the other half, all of the peasants become easy to control.