[appreciatorBus]

What is the factory exists to serve 10,000 houses?

To be clear, I think you’ve got the right direction – free stuff for humans up to a point and then market rate for everyone/everything after that. I just think it’s silly to pretend that companies are polluting for shits and giggles. They’re polluting for us.

I think that pricing pollution is the right way to go, I just know that the outcome isn’t going to be some magical world where companies pay for pollution but consumer don’t. The only way it works is that the costs get passed on and the consumer pays.

[bix6]

They’re not polluting for us they are polluting to make money for shareholders. People buying stuff is just a necessary step (sometimes) to make that happen.

[appreciatorBus]

A nonprofit, co-op, or government entity, serving the same customer the same product would produce an identical amount of pollution as the for-profit factory.

[bix6]

Not true. The non profit might add a screen to catch pollution before it hits the waterway.

[appreciatorBus]

Sure they might do that, just as a for profit company might.

The decision by either would face the same trade off - an increase in costs that their customers/patrons may not care about or be willing to pay for.

The answer for both is the same - price externalities so that the decision to pollute less is economic rather than moral.