 |
| We are and should be moving away from coal. Trumpworld wants it back. Why? |
Paul Krugman presents all we need to know in a Twitter thread:
Thinking some more about this Pruitt story. Kudos to Bloomberg for getting the facts; but I wish reporters wouldn't lump de facto bribes from lobbyists with padded expense accounts, like unnecessary first-class travel. Corruption is a much bigger deal 1/ https://t.co/cVaDP3Oap4— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 30, 2018
Think about it: if a govt official abuses his office by taking a fancy trip, taxpayers lose the expense of that trip. But if he accepts what amount to kickbacks from corporations who can benefit from his actions, the cost can be far larger 2/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 30, 2018
Environmental enforcement is, in a way, almost custom-built for corruption. If you waive or fail to enforce a rule that, say, prevents certain companies from dumping toxins in the water supply, the benefit of your action accrues to a small, well-connected group 3/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 30, 2018
Meanwhile, the costs of your malfeasance fall on a large, diffuse group -- ordinary citizens -- who may not even be aware that you're compromising their health and sending some of them to an early grave, and certainly don't employ DC lobbyists 4/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 30, 2018
So if we let environmental officials get away with personally profiting from lobbyist connections, you're going to have a pronounced pro-pollution bias -- and this will be true even if the social costs of their laxness are vastly larger than the benefits 5/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 30, 2018
If you try to put an economic value on the sickness and death caused by pollution, the numbers are huge; but if officials get a green light to be corrupt, they'll cheerfully impose those costs to raise a few companies' profits 6/ https://t.co/AyXcqKeyWV— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 30, 2018
So officials at the EPA need to be squeaky clean -- even more than officials in general. But Trump has set the standard for his administration, and we're well on our way to third-world-level corruption everywhere 7/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 30, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment