Here’s a letter to the Guardian.
Editor:
I was struck by a realization upon reading Jonathan Watts’s uncritical endorsement of Thomas Piketty, et al.’s, newly released “Global Justice Report: A Plan for Equality & Prosperity Within Planetary Boundaries” (“‘Happiness is not just about GDP’: ambitious plan or utopia?” June 4).
Progressives love to boast of their devotion to “sustainability.” Advertisers seeking their patronage trumpet certain foods and other consumer goods as being “sustainably grown” and “sustainably sourced” – advertisements that exploit progressives’ economically naïve conviction that the normal practice of businesses in market economies is to myopically disregard access to inputs tomorrow in order to unsustainably maximize sales today. Indeed, Messieurs Piketty and Co. share this naïve conviction: their report predicts that myopic market forces will inflict severe damage on the environment – damage that’s avoidable only by adopting their scheme for soaking the rich and harshly restricting economic growth.
This prediction is ironic. There’s nothing unsustainable about free-market activities, for the greatest protector of the environment and surest insurance against resource depletion are secure, tradeable property rights.
But if anyone wants an unambiguous example of a genuinely unsustainable policy, look no further than the scheme endorsed by Messieurs Piketty and Co. Such seizure of wealth and government central economic planning will kill golden-egg-laying geese and destroy the capital that’s necessary for ordinary workers to earn wages high enough to afford these workers the modern luxury of caring about the environment. The end result would be massive poverty, a pathetically puny tax base, and a dirtier and more dangerous environment.
Soak-the-rich taxation and economic central planning, under whatever guise, have always been, and will always be, unsustainable.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
andMartha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
