[permo-w]

if demand is there for a product, human creativity will find a way to meet that demand. it always has done and it always will do. this is the true power of the markets. they’re excellent at solving demand-meeting problems. they’re not excellent at fixing humanitarian problems. the misunderstanding that free marketers extoll is that demand somehow strongly reflects humanitarian good, as if people’s desire to move quickly and eat tasty and wear fancy will lead to the overall health and wellbeing of the species. of course, some part of demand does reflect that desire. the problem is that it’s almost never enough and even when it is it takes too long to solve time-limited problems like climate change. demand (read: enough people) will finally care once it’s too late. once the results are already here

problems like this need fixing—quickly—and the idea that a ban is unfeasible is simply propaganda for vested interests. perhaps not directly extolled, but a result of the free-market propaganda machine of Friedman et al set up in the 70s and 80s to disseminate these ideas at all of our expenses