The main problem is that at the moment a fair price, based on the finite quatity of materials arn’t charged for resorces and the true cost of disposing of wast isn’t charge either. Correct these 2 and we’ll be on to a winner. (sorry for the rant)

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? You acknowledge that elected politicians today are often corrupted or ensnared by special interests, but you seem to believe that if we just pass the right campaign finance laws, that will change. I doubt it.

Tragically, all politicians and government officials are drawn from the exact same gene pool as corporate CEOs, lobbyists, etc. They are equally subject to financial corruption, and also the corruptions of power-hunger, flattery, sexual favors, and all the other things that can thwart a pure devotion to the public good. Like corporate CEOs, they come in smart and stupid, honorable and venal, reflective and self-deluding, wise and foolish, experienced and naive, etc., and often a mixture of all the above.

The only sure thing about government officials is that they have the exclusive legal authority to use guns in pursuit of their political goals.

You and I come from that same gene pool, too. You earn your living off of selling your theories to the public, and could suffer the loss of your audience and livelihood (not to mention vitriolic attacks on your character) if you changed your mind about your current ideas. Many psychological studies show that people are very resistant to and skeptical of ideas that conflict with their existing views. Add to that the risk of loss of income and approval, and the effect could be just corrupting as any campaign contribution. (And, of course, I could be in the employ of some evil corporation, or just inordinately fond of personal freedom. I don’t claim to be bias-free.)

No, firefighters and librarians are not typically fear-mongerers, but claiming our “house is on fire”? Yes, that qualifies.

Fear-mongering is referring to “continent-sized islands of plastic debris” when what you’re really talking about is roughly 11 pounds of plastic particles per square kilometer of ocean area, or less than 2/10,000 (two ten-thousandths) of an ounce of plastic per square meter. Some island.

Fear-mongering is talking about “synthetic estrogens in 92% of Americans’ bodies” when it is actually in their urine that it has been found, meaning it was being expelled from those bodies, and there is no evidence that a) it is being built up in our bodies, or b) would do anything harmful even if it were.

What you call facts are what I call factoids. To someone who is science-challenged, doesn’t know how to research, is suggestible, has little resistance to the paranoid style and little historical understanding of the general course of human progress, these factoids can sound scary, while remaining essentially meaningless.

What the fear-mongers claim today is that our house is such a mess we should tear it down ASAP, and rebuild it according to plans developed by architects who have never successfully built anything before, using methods that have never been tested before or if tested, have resulted in buildings that collapsed, killing their occupants.

You promise that “we can create a more robust economy, prevent a crisis, and have a better quality of life” if we do what you want. That’s the kind of promise that has been made by every utopian who ever took charge of a country, and a lot of them even believed it. You’re so sure of your promise you call it a “no-brainer” but history tells us our brains should very definitely engage when someone makes promises about unprovable future benefits in exchange for enormous current sacrifices.

By the way, phasing out coal plants at the expense of people freezing and starving to death isn’t “protecting the public interest” unless you believe that a democracy means the majority gets to vote for the minority to die, because that would be useful to the majority. If enough people decided it was in the public interest for you to stop publishing books, would you still say that was not a “moral or individual rights” issue?

A corporation is incapable of good or evil, any more than a knife, a book, or a computer is. Like any other tool or device, it’s all about how it is used by people.

I disagree with you that “not all government decisions are coercive,” if by decisions you mean laws. A law (at least one that includes enforcement powers and penalties, as most do) is always coercive. In fact, that’s pretty much the definition of a law.

Just out of curiousity, Dave, in your brave new world, what do you propose “we” do with people like me?