[ExI] Under the libertarian yoke

[Damien Broderick]

Krugman comments relevantly, I think, in today's 
NYT, presenting both market and govt functioning together on problems:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/opinion/02krugman.html>

...the first President Bush established a 
market-based system for controlling sulfur 
dioxide emissions, which has been highly 
successful at controlling acid rain. But by then 
the idea of markets in emission permits had long 
been accepted by economists of all political stripes.

And it had also been accepted by leading 
Democrats. The Environmental Protection Agency 
began letting cities meet air-quality standards 
using emissions-trading systems during the Carter 
administration ­ which also led the way on 
deregulation of airlines and trucking.

Furthermore, the sulfur dioxide scheme actually 
marked a sharp change in policy from the Reagan 
administration, which ­ committed to the belief 
that government is always the problem, never the 
solution ­ spent eight years opposing any effort to control acid rain.

Rather than admit that pollution is a problem the 
government has to solve ­ even as the 
consequences of acid rain became ever more 
alarming, not to mention as America’s failure to 
act provoked a near-crisis in relations with 
Canada, which was suffering the effects of 
U.S.-generated sulfur dioxide ­ the Reaganites 
insisted that there was no problem at all. They 
denied the evidence, questioned the science, 
called for more research and did nothing. Sound familiar?