Donald J. Boudreaux , chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., says, “It’s a perfectly legitimate stance for truly reasonable people to conclude that the best policy regarding global warming is to neglect it – and let capitalism continue to make us healthier and wealthier.”
Actually, no. There is nothing legitimate or reasonable about this position, and it’s a continuing problem that mainstream media outlets keep buying this bunkum on the basis that the writer has a PhD in a field unrelated to climate change (or to common sense, apparently).
Tim Lambert at deltoid has a point-by-point response, which addresses the general goofiness of Boudreaux’s position. But the bottom line for all you free marketeers is this: Capitalism will only cure climate change when capitalists turn their creative attention toward addressing the problem. Those who continue to deny it are missing an opportunity to make money, as well as endangering the rest of us.
