Way back when, before I started college and actually took economics and business courses, I often wondered why companies didn’t need to bear the full costs of their production.
For example: Energy.Power companies polluted water, air, and soil for DECADES and NEVER had to account for it, in many cases.
They produced a product and made a profit because they didn’t have to bear the costs that were undeniably borne by society.
In large part, they still haven’t paid the full cost of production.
Not to mention NEVER having fully paid for the benefits they receive from society in terms of infrastructure.
Imagine an oil & gas company who had to make their own roads and bridges…to get their product to market.
I really HATE that nobody ever talks about this.
Same goes for “EV” companies like Tesla. All that battery power doesn’t come from magic.
Depending on where you are, your electricity may come from…OIL.
And producing the batteries and then disposing of them…all of that has costs that is NEVER paid by the producing company.
HELL, they don’t even have to pass those costs onto the consumers of their product because they are never held accountable for those “hidden-in-plain-sight costs.”
