“Studies of individual environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act, have found that they have little impact on employment and productivity… Now, there is hard data showing that more, and more stringent environmental policies do not harm economic growth.
That’s the finding of researchers at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development who have compiled the first comprehensive set of data on environmental strictness and its effect on productivity. The figures cover 24 OECD countries from 1990 to 2012, and draw on the ORBIS database of information on 44 million companies. The report’s conclusion contradicts what governments and companies often believe: that green regulations may be justified in the long run, but that they come with immediate, substantial economic costs. One interesting point: stricter environmental policies may encourage businesses to invest more in efficiencies and innovations than they would have otherwise.”
— John Howell for 3BL Media.
Commentary: Ron Robins
That such a respected economic body like the OECD finds that environmental laws do not hurt economic growth should be become a major plank in the platform of political parties everywhere. That way the idea can be embedded in public consciousness and spur governments and businesses to not be afraid of environmental regulations.
However, I believe a superior way to accomplish this goal would be based on market-based pricing mechanisms that allow for full product costing that includes societal health and environmental costs. I would propose a scaling up over time of the inclusion of such costs and that all trade agreements be amended to account for them. Presently, this is probably impractical, but from a free market perspective might be preferable to government imposed regulations and laws. Such a market-based mechanism might also be less expensive to administer. Just a hunch though…
Enlightened Economics 
• Can income redistribution help fight depression?
Posted by Ron Robins on February 28, 2015
“The average poor person has about two and a half times the level of painful emotions as the average rich person… the decline in painful emotions with [increasing] income, both on average and at the mood-disorder level, is actually caused by changes in income. This means depression is a consequence of poverty. Further, the causal effect of income on emotional pain is much stronger at low incomes than high ones… Opponents of shifting the tax burden back to high earners often argue that doing so will hurt economic growth. We needn’t be too worried. Compared to the past 35 years, U.S. economic growth was actually higher under the more progressive tax regime of 1950 to 1980.”
— Can income redistribution help fight depression? By David Clingingsmith, February 25, 2015, Corporate Knights, Canada
Commentary: Ron Robins
This is an important study. However, I’d argue that the real problem of poverty and its deleterious effects for psychological health relative to those with higher incomes, can be reduced with poor people participating in the financial benefits that accrue with corporate ownership. (And I’m not talking about socialism or communism!)
I believe an enlightened approach would be for the wealthy — and for corporations themselves — in each country to entrust a certain percentage of their profits in the form of company stock to a ‘sovereign wealth fund.’ Over time, some of the dividends and stock gains could be cashed and used to directly increase the incomes of the poor. Higher taxes for the rich (which is becoming popular), advocated in the above article, could be introduced now but would probably have to be quite onerous to significantly improve the income of the poor and ameliorate their emotional distress to any great degree.
Furthermore, as it’s proving in France which imposed very high taxes on high incomes, the wealthy become very adept in finding ways to avoid the higher taxes — and many even moving themselves to other jurisdictions!
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Posted in Consciousness/Psychology, Economics, Labour Issues, News, Commentary | Tagged: Economics, enlightened economics, higher consciousness, incomes, poor, psychology, taxation, taxes | 2 Comments »