Comment by quotemstr
8 days ago
Actors in a capitalist system have an incentive to maximize profit. How is it profit-maximizing to pay to produce an item and throw it away unsold?
> negative externalities do not feed back into supply or demand.
What is the unaccounted externality? Clothing makers pay for material inputs and labor inputs. They pay for transportation. If they discard goods, they pay for more transportation and for the landfill. What specific externality is unaccounted?
The unaccounted externality is the wasted energy to create a thing and destroy it without ever using it.
This may be profit maximizing because it maintains the exclusivity of the brand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
And you presume to know better than they do what to do with that energy? Do you think you have a general right to override people's resource allocation decisions when you believe they're being wasteful?
1. In this case, not using the energy at all would have been better. 2. The legislature of a sovereign polity would have, and be able to delegate, that right. If and when the legislature should make use of that right is a political question.
> Do you think you have a general right to override people's resource allocation decisions when you believe they're being wasteful?
Me personally? No, of course not. But I do think our government has the responsibility to govern.