Barkley,
> Whether you have taxes, permits, quantity controls, or
>whatever, if someone is poisoning someone else and that can
>be shown (not always an easy if, as the Kodak situation
>indicates), then the poisonees ought to be able to take the
>poisoners to court, period. This is quite beyond any of
>these systems.
Absolutely. The problem is, proving that you're being poisoned is often
incredibly difficult if not impossible. That's why I have qualms about
permits. Permits set a limit beyond which no one is allowed to
pollute--usually a level which is still fairly high. The question of
who'll be bombarded w/ pollutants at that level and who will be subjected
to a considerably lower level of pollutants is then left up to
corporations, not the community. It seems to me that the end result is
inherently undemocratic, even by a wimpy liberal definition of democracy.
Anders Schneiderman
P.S. If it hasn't been clear in my posts, I am not in any way challenging
the sincerity of folks who prefer permits over taxes as a way to clean the
environment; I just think the end result is much more likely to be less fair.
