Reply #12: So what is the solution? [View All]

[Meldread]

The solution being proposed is this: end corporate friendly regulation by creating more corporate friendly regulation.

Regulation will -always- favor the corporations, especially big corporations. The only type of business that is actually hurt by regulation is small business. Regulation keeps small business out of the market place, allowing big business to continue to grow in size until they're virtual monopolies. Furthermore, have you ever heard of a grandfather clause? Big corporations can afford lobbyists to ensure that their plants are grandfathered in, and thus don't have to comply with the regulation. Alternatively, they can lobby to ensure that regulations are not as strong as they need to be. If that fails, then they can always go after the regulators directly bribing them as happened in many instances with oil and energy companies in the Bush Administration. Virtually every regulator that was supposed to oversee them ended up with a cushy oil and energy job once they left government. Surprise! They overlooked... well... everything. To say they didn't do their job would be charitable; more like they were criminally negligent.

Furthermore, do you honestly believe that anything that takes place in Copenhagen matters one wit? You're smart enough to know it doesn't. Even if everyone comes to an agreement, very few will follow it. Enforcement issues will abound, and when one country doesn't comply guess what happens? They benefit economically because it's cheaper to pollute than not to... and the three countries most likely not to comply are the three biggest polluters: China, the United States, and India.

I'm sorry, but it's just reality. Unless individuals can hold polluters accountable for their actions, then polluters will just use government as a legal shield. After all, if you're producing tons of CO2 and contributing in a significant factor toward climate change, but still comply with all government regulation what legal recourse do people have? None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Yet, it is individuals who are most directly impacted by this... and it's politicians who benefit from corporate pollution donations that have the most to gain by ensuring that there is no significant change.

However, if you have a better plan, then I'm open to suggestions. It's easy to criticize, it's much harder to actually come up with a solution.