Corporate expansion into developing countries is good for everyone

I walked into a conversation the other day in which a lady claimed she hates economists because they or their beliefs are bad for the environment.

Think back 100 or 200 hundred years ago. We the United States cut down just about every tree on this continent. We polluted the environment more than any entity ever. We sacrificed species of animals left and right and finally caught an entire river on fire. Everybody that partook in those practices knew they were harming the environment and knew that doing so was not good. Trust me any person knows it is bad to outflow your petro waste into a river. So why did they do it?

Because they were poor! This country did not start off as the richest in the world. We started off struggling the same way many countries are today. When our forefathers were faced with the choice between putting food on the table or saving the life of a spotted owl, (logging has endangered the spotted owl yet many of our forefathers made a living through logging) guess what they choose? And probably rightly so.

Because of this exploitation and past lack of concern for the environment our country prospered and our standard of living was elevated considerably.

Similar stories can be told of any industrialized and developed country.

We, citizens of these fortunate countries, are now able to sacrifice production and economic advancement to be more environmentally aware. Our choice is no longer "spotted owl or dinner". It is more like "spotted owl or bigger SUV". We have chosen to raise awareness and pass environmentally protective laws. These laws have slowed the continual rise of US per capita income and standard of living (bigger SUV) but we have all decided it is worth it, now.

But do not kid yourself. The difference is not that we are more environmentally aware than before, it is that we can now afford to be environmentally aware. So you can thank economic development and the economist working so hard for you. Economic development is the reason we have come to be environmentally aware.

In addition, economic development is the only way to get other countries/all countries to be environmentally aware. Citizens of developed nations look to developing nations such as Mexico, African countries, and other underdeveloped nations and ask: "How can you clear-cut your rain forests?" "How can you pollute the way you do?" "Why do you not have environmental laws?" Remember that they are only asking those questions while they are sipping on their Passion Fruit and Kumquat blended juice at an outdoor cappuccino/sushi bar. These developing nations are doing exactly what we did 100 years ago. They will continue to do it until they can afford not to do it. Therefore if you want to help the environment then help these nations develop economically (become an economist).

BTW, A new McDonalds creates available jobs, which in turn raises employees standard of living, which in turn helps the environment. So save the environment and build a McDonalds in Rabat, Morocco

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This entry was posted on February 19th, 2005 and is filed under Economics, Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.