GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE ANSWER W hen Americans talk about the problems above, problems caused by “them”, the first instinct says government is the answer. Well that instinct is wrong. Our government has talked of tackling these problems for years -- but talk is just that. Take, for example, the environment. No environmentalist can be pleased with the government’s record over the past twenty years. Its management of public lands often has been deplorable. To subsidize logging in ecologically sensitive areas is a be- trayal of the public’s trust. Subsidies for irrigation, grazing, and farming all degrade the environment, not protect it. The government’s reliance on command-and-control regulations has stifled innovation, imposed huge and unnecessary costs on businesses, and left us unprepared to cope with non-point sources of air and water pollution. And contrary to the claims of those who defend it, the Endangered Species Act may be responsible for as much injury to as protection of wildlife. If, as the research seems to indi- cate, compliance with environmental regulations costs between four and six times as much as the least expensive way to accomplish the same level of emissions reduction, then $3 of every $4 spent on pollution abatement in recent years has simply been wasted. With pollution abatement costs
74
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online