19 Dec
2011
19 Dec
'11
5 p.m.
On 19/12/11 5:27 PM, David Riley wrote:
On Dec 18, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Toby Thain wrote:
It's interesting to see the whole thing framed as a reward/punishment experiment.
I'm using the word "pay" quite broadly.
--Toby
What if a
government begins to charge a fee to dispose of old computers,
for example? Any hoarder / collector with a pre-existing pile of dozens
of computers has a significant liability on their hands. Of course, who
would ever get rid of their classic beauties?
What would happen if a government instituted a bounty on old computers,
so the pile suddenly has more value as recyclables than as classic computers?
The price of gold may have already done that.
There are many people in the USA who regard any recycling as a direct
affront on their way of life and who deeply resent any requirements
to sort their waste.
Bingo. Why should they care? It's their descendants who'll pay. I don't know how much the grumbling was in the EU
when places started
charging a Euro for every grocery bag (something I could get
behind),
but Washington DC practically threw a tantrum when they started charging
$0.05 per bag. It wasn't enough to actually change behavior, though;
just enough to make people irrationally upset.
On the other hand, Whole Foods offers a $0.05 discount if you use your own bag. In the
grand scheme of things, it's the same as having a $0.05 fee for providing a bag, but
people seem to find it a lot more palatable (on the other hand, they are also all Whole
Foods customers, so there's a pretty significant selection bias).
- Dave