*Sigh* a bunch of socialists are having parades against capitalism again, now claiming that it destroys the environment. However as I noted in our book: Research conducted by economists Joel Wood and Ian Herzog finds that economic freedom is associated with less air pollution in a data set of over 100 countries (after controlling for other relevant factors). In regards to how economic freedom affected carbon dioxide emissions, they could not find evidence of a relationship. [1] Using the Heritage Foundation’s economic fredom index, James Roberts and Ryan Olson found that nations with higher economic freedom scored higher on Yale University’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI). They also found that, more economic freedom was associated with improved health and health care, lower infant-mortality rates, better education, cleaner water, and improved sanitation.[2] Research from economist Michael Stroup examined how economic freedom was related to air and water pollution in developed countries. After controlling for variables such as per capita GDP, urbanization, population, etc, he found that nations with more economic fredom experienced less pollution and higher environmental quality.[3] If youre going to have a parade proclaiming capitalism kills the environment, you should at least have some evidence to back that claim up. And of course, they ignore the fact that the US government is the biggest polluter in the entire world. [4] Citations: [1] https://fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/economic-freedom-and-air-quality.pdf [2] heritage.org/research/reports/2013/09/how-economic-freedom-promotes-better-health-care-education-and-environmental-quality [3] https://dallasfed.org/assets/documents/research/pubs/ftc/stroup.pdf [4] ivn.us/2012/04/18/the-number-one-worst-polluter-on-earth-is-the-u-s-federal-government/
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 21:00:02 +0000
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