Week 4 (Blog)

Well, here's positive incentive at its best...
This is a great way to help people across the technology gap. The biggest problem with better technologies that may be cleaner and more energy-efficient or more resource-effieicent is the fact that they are more expensive because the act of avoiding environmental hard is expensive (going back to externalities rant ... and bypassing since we've all heard it before) and so you are paying more than the other product. The rub here is that consumers pay the cost of environmental damage through taxes and other means (increased water treatment, taxes pay for enforcement, there are others) and by buying the environmentally responsible products, consumers pay the costs at both ends. Basically, you pay to divert damage you are already paying for. Makes these responsible products seem all the more costly. Same reason we buy from Wal*Mart and other big box stores (it's cheaper so we try to save money because money is tight, but the reason money is tight is that jobs are moving out of the US and most people do not have the education required to be in management positions... plus waitstaff gets paid less than minimum wage (because the tips make up for it... hardly a tip...).

Sigh... can we say viscious cycle? People try to save money, but by saving money they cause more damage socially, environmentally, resource-wise, or however... just because they opt for the "cheaper" option...

Blog:

Leaf blowers

Here is an example of the effectiveness of incentives over bans in the landscaping industry (Agency offers ...):

Leaf blowers, the most efficient way to keep lawns and sidewalks Desperate Housewives-immaculate, are a bane to both the air and the ear.

In the Los Angeles area, home to a thriving landscaping industry and one of the worst smog problems in the nation, the regional air quality agency is offering cleaner, quieter machines at a discount to landscapers who turn in old ones.

...

The agency said the trade-in was a good alternative to leaf blower bans, which some cities adopted but which can be difficult to enforce. Officials from the nearby city of South Pasadena contacted the agency for help after repealing a gas-powered leaf blower ban a year ago because of the number of complaints about violations. Landscapers say that using electric leaf blowers or tools like brooms and rakes takes more time and raises costs.