Can Capitalism Embrace the Green Revolution?
Having read Michael Callaways excellent article entitled It’s Not Easy Being Green, I thought that I would weigh in on my own recent thoughts concerning the alleged climate crisis, and the emergence of green technologies that have resulted from this alarmist sentiment. Let me state out right that I am a conservative. I am also a capitalist. While I don’t believe that capitalism is perfect, I do feel that it is one of the best practical modalities for promoting fairness in society. I wrote a previous article on this topic, so I won’t go into my reasoning. Let it stand that I am a proponent of capitalistic society.
That being the case, I am confused by many similarly minded individuals rejecting any kind of green technology. While I may agree that the climate “crisis” is by and large a lot of hyper inflated nonsense, I have no philosophical qualms about supporting green technologies. The beauty of capitalism is that if a product or service is better, it survives, if its inferior, it gets plowed under.
Green tech has a lot going for it, and a lot against it. Let the market decide the fate of green technology, and leave all of the politicking out of it. What we absolutely DO NOT need is a whole lot of red tape corralling us into using green technology. There is no quicker way to destroy a great idea than to remove it from any form of competition.
Michael mentioned in his post the fact that the mercury and nickel in many of today’s green tech will do far more harm than good, and he’s right. The solution to that problem is to continue to expose that industry to market forces. The market will figure out that using toxic substances in its products is not good for sales, and will work out a solution.
My fear is that the powers that be (perhaps Michaels “They”?) will create a stagnant, government subsidized pit in which nickel and lead filled technologies can languish forever. Free from the impetus to change that is competition. All of these attempts to legislate our environmental morality are merely the latest form of the ivory tower socialistic worldview. That worldview is that we the people are idiots and we need the government elite and the academia to legislate our lives in every conceivable manner.
The truth is that we the people are much brighter than the elites give us credit for. We recognize the usefulness of green tech, and we want to be good stewards of our home. If we are allowed, I feel that our money will speak for us, and a healthy, dynamically improving green tech industry will be the result.
But for the sake of all that is holy, don’t remove the competition!
