[qnt]

I think "the economic system is wrong" is a bit of a stretch, but despite objectively working pretty well there are a few glaring problems (some of which potentially lead to society imploding if left unchecked... but aside from that, pretty good!)

As far as I'm aware, I think the most glaring problems (tragedy of the commons, dealing with negative externalities) are very well known & have relatively well understood policy solutions (e.g. Pigovian tax).

When there is wide enough social buy-in that these policy solutions can be implemented without expending/risking too much political capital, the "problem" ends up resolved.

A good example might be smoking in Australia. Very highly taxed, forced grotesque health warning images plastered all over the cigarette packets, etc. The comparison travelling through Italy vs Australia with respect to number of smokers is pretty amazing. The population understands & accepts the negative externalities of smoking well enough to accept the forced hand of policymakers intervening in their lives, and won't vote anybody out because of it.

So to me, the more appropriate question is, how do we incentivise enough social buy-in that people will accept the personal disadvantages of e.g. a carbon tax, and still lend their support (vote) to the party who choses to implement it? Didn't work well for France last time they tried to hike taxes on fuel.

[xg15]

Climate change and environmental collapse are somewhat larger dimensions than smoking though, both in impact as well as required policy changes.

The tobacco industry has never had a particular good reputation, so getting social buy-in is not that hard. It has no more utility than the alcohol industry, so getting rid of it has not a lot of knock-on effects. Even then, demanding a few scary pictures was a slap on the wrist, compared to outright banning them. (Not sure about Australia, but other notions actually work with local bans in a gradually increasing number of locations)

I think fighting climate change and environmental collapse are harder problems because the responsible industries are deeply intertwined into our economic systems and lifestyles. They are also providing a significant amount of political power. We'll have to actively work to find alternative ways of doing things in many areas before we're able to scale back here.