"You show me a polluter, I'll show you a subsidy; I'll show you a fat cat who's using political clout to escape the discipline of the free market and force the public to pay his production costs. That's what all pollution is — it is always a subsidy." ~ Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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Jr.’s quote needs a little Coase to take it to the next level. What assumption about property is he taking?
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Found the above quote, from the Larry King Show, 2003. Immediately before that quote Jr. actually does sound a tiny bit Coasean:
“to me, there is no stronger advocate for free market capitalism than myself. I believe that the free market is the most efficient and democratic way of distributing the goods of the land, and that we should have property rights in this country. I think that’s what an environmental advocacy is about establishing property rights, about protecting democracy, about protecting the free market.” -
I love the quite, but I’d condition it as a “restricted subsidy” of some sort, i.e., a subsidy to OH but not NC. This is to distinguish from “everyone subsidy” such as preschool, since everyone can access it (in theory).
It’s not pollution to lower the price of a good with positive spillovers to everyone; it is pollution to lower that price for one group on the back of the other group.
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