Economics is science where disinformation is as important as information. Consequently people may be excused if they are confused by the machinations of the big banks, the government, and other organs of the 1%.
There are, however, some basic rules of economics that can be used to analyze events and make predictions in spite of all the misdirection. Demand and supply, while fiercely manipulated and misrepresented, still eventually asserts itself. The fallacy of composition is a principle which is repeated over and over, and one should refresh one's understanding. Externality, the most extensive principle of modern economics, whereby the entire biosphere is dismissed as not worth accounting.
People generally understand that demand drives supply. A long, failed "war on drugs," while never meant to stop drugs, nevertheless showed that the best way to not stop something is to attack supply and ignore demand.
In the U.S., environmentalism has focused on supply. Stopping development mostly, now taking the form of stopping fossil-fuel production. But the demand that is driving development, created by the subsidy of sprawl and car-dependent living is not directly addressed. Have you ever heard of a major environmental group opposing the home mortgage interest deduction? Stopping that would be more effective than trying to block oil exploration in the arctic.
It is time to look for demand-side ways to undercut the critical mass of the autosprawl system.
There are, however, some basic rules of economics that can be used to analyze events and make predictions in spite of all the misdirection. Demand and supply, while fiercely manipulated and misrepresented, still eventually asserts itself. The fallacy of composition is a principle which is repeated over and over, and one should refresh one's understanding. Externality, the most extensive principle of modern economics, whereby the entire biosphere is dismissed as not worth accounting.
People generally understand that demand drives supply. A long, failed "war on drugs," while never meant to stop drugs, nevertheless showed that the best way to not stop something is to attack supply and ignore demand.
In the U.S., environmentalism has focused on supply. Stopping development mostly, now taking the form of stopping fossil-fuel production. But the demand that is driving development, created by the subsidy of sprawl and car-dependent living is not directly addressed. Have you ever heard of a major environmental group opposing the home mortgage interest deduction? Stopping that would be more effective than trying to block oil exploration in the arctic.
It is time to look for demand-side ways to undercut the critical mass of the autosprawl system.
