[titzer]

Now you realize how the game theory of economics is fundamentally at odds with the natural world and sustainability. It always pays to defect now, and the loudest voices are usually the rich players who moan about economic growth and "burdensome regulations". Mining and logging in the US was very much like this before regulation, but that was on a much smaller scale, with simpler technology and less energy available to scale up. My advice: pay attention closely to environmental policy and don't let regulations be rolled back in the name of growth!

[dustingetz]

The resolution to the economic prisoner’s dilemma is religion, which evolved to coordinate the globally shared values needed to defeat a backstab/backstab situation. For example “thou shalt not murder” is win/win.

[anthonypasq]

in what world does murdering someone have equivalently inconspicuous externalities as burning fossil fuels?

[earthstabber]

ours

[wayoutthere]

Policy doesn’t even need to be rolled back much of the time: they can just stall progress while they figure loopholes around the existing policies. Which has been the GOP strategy for almost 40 years.

[bluGill]

Don't blame the GOP, both parties have been doing it for the last 200 years (the republican party isn't that old, but the Whigs before them as well). They target different areas to stall progress. Sometimes the stalling is good, sometimes is bad - and it is often a matter of opinion which is good or bad.

[wayoutthere]

I mean, sure; the democrats do some of this but the entire GOP strategy over the last 40 years has been to bring the government to a standstill to avoid passing anything.

The GOP strategy succeeds in the case of “passing GOP-sponsored laws” and in the case of “doing absolutely nothing”. The Democrat strategy only succeeds in the “passing Dem-sponsored laws” case — it disheartens the Dem base to see an ineffective government while confirming the pre-held anti-government bias of the GOP base.

Also, I would avoid this argumentation approach related to modern politics in the future; “whataboutism” which is widely recognized as a GOP propaganda technique. The Progressive agenda is not actually about getting even, it’s about fixing a system that has oppressed the middle and working class into a rent-seeking economy with little social mobility. We don’t care that it’s “always been done this way;” the “old guard” of the Democratic Party is only slightly less of a problem than the GOP.

We’re trying to fix the systemic issues in our electoral process, which also includes the Democrat “superdelegate” nomination process designed to weed out populist candidates. Like it or not, we’re in a populist era...

[tracker1]

Another point worth mentioning is exceptions to environmental treaties... they, like any loophole, will be abused.