Post by bisal37 on Mar 12, 2024 4:34:46 GMT
When the Iron Curtain fell and the East was embracing the free market system, one of the personalities of the world economy, the then senior official of the World Bank, Larry Summers, wrote a Memo that he forwarded to the top managers of the Bank (Hausman, Economic Analysis , Moral Philosophy, and Public Policy). The central argument was related to the policies of how the Bank should support countries in transition by facilitating the transfer to them of technologies used by developed countries. Of course these technologies had a high degree of environmental pollution, but the East was several decades behind in technological progress, and moreover there was mass unemployment.
The old Western technologies, even though they USA Phone Number had high pollution rates, would create more employment, which was the main concern for these traumatized countries. On the other hand, Western countries had the opportunity to export old and environmentally unfriendly technologies and adapt new technologies with minimal pollution. In this way, this policy was a win-win equation, where all parties realized their objectives. Economically, the logic holds (to some extent: without considering the costs of public health, environmental degradation or rehabilitation of polluted areas, etc.); ethically and morally, the argument has a big gap.
Summers himself has apologized for this document. The problem of our economy is very contradictory: we are not polluters of the globe and we are even positive contributors to the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. But, wherever there are old inherited industries or factories, or even new ones, where there are constructions or infrastructure projects under construction, the environment is degrading, solid waste is piled up and dumped on the side of national roads, in cities or in tourist areas; wherever there are foreign or domestic investment projects in the exploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution and destruction (and with a little delay, also social degradation) are dramatically visible.
The old Western technologies, even though they USA Phone Number had high pollution rates, would create more employment, which was the main concern for these traumatized countries. On the other hand, Western countries had the opportunity to export old and environmentally unfriendly technologies and adapt new technologies with minimal pollution. In this way, this policy was a win-win equation, where all parties realized their objectives. Economically, the logic holds (to some extent: without considering the costs of public health, environmental degradation or rehabilitation of polluted areas, etc.); ethically and morally, the argument has a big gap.
Summers himself has apologized for this document. The problem of our economy is very contradictory: we are not polluters of the globe and we are even positive contributors to the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. But, wherever there are old inherited industries or factories, or even new ones, where there are constructions or infrastructure projects under construction, the environment is degrading, solid waste is piled up and dumped on the side of national roads, in cities or in tourist areas; wherever there are foreign or domestic investment projects in the exploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution and destruction (and with a little delay, also social degradation) are dramatically visible.