Category Archives: Environment, society, politics and economics
Boots – not feeling so good
Under the Boots logo is says: “Feel good.” They made me feel bad. The beautiful old chemists shop in Kirkby Lonsdale had fine wooden shelves and Victorian apothecary’s jars. Last year it was acquired by Boots. Corporate vandals stripped the … Continue reading
Balancing growth and decline
What does the economy look like if you start to unwind it bit by bit? Take Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, for example. The schools stop buying frozen chicken nuggets and make their own food from fresh. So manufacturers of frozen … Continue reading
Addiction
If the price of heroin goes up I don’t think it makes addicts consume less. It just makes them desperate and more likely to commit crimes. The economics of addiction is different from the economics of normal supply and demand. … Continue reading
Fertiliser
Why aren’t policy-makers talking about fertiliser? Simply: to make food the agri industry needs synthetic fertilisers. Without synthetic fertilisers, as the agri-industry is the first to tell you, we would all starve! We need fertiliser, especially nitrogen fertiliser. To make … Continue reading
The questionable appeal of efficiency
One frequently mentioned criterion for climate change policies is that they should help us achieve our goals “efficiently”. An advantage claimed for emissions trading or environmental markets is that they reduce emissions in an economically efficient way. We need to … Continue reading