I'd challenge both thoughts...
Jonathan Goodish wrote:
And things in Pittsburgh are still pretty much the same. The smog is
pretty much gone because so are the steel mills. The rivers are still
dirty and active strip mines are still very prevalent.
Well, the rivers are cleaner. A lot cleaner. Which is not to say they
are clean. I have no objective quantitative data. But *no* one
did any visible pleasure boating near the point in the 60s or 70s.
Industrial pollutants were as obvious as human waste is in "straight
pipe" sewage systems in the hollows of KY. Heck, I dumped some of it
myself, industrial pollutants that is.
The reality is that corporate greed is a very good thing when it's
tempered with responsibility. The net effect of environmental laws is
that cost rise for the business, workers lose their jobs, cost of goods
increases (people can afford less), and when coupled with mismanagement,
all of this often results in corporate bankruptcy. Unfortunately, many
environmental laws are based on junk science or data that has not be
proven as fact. There are many laws which are based on fear and,
unfortunately, those laws have the same negative effect on business and
personal wealth as any laws or regulations based on valid proven data.
Well run public corporations don't act 'responsibly' beyond those acts
that contribute to the 'bottom line'. I've worked for a corporation
that was widely considered a very 'responsible' corporate citizen,
particularly in terms of human resource policies. Those policies
serviced the interests of greed very well in terms of attracting and
keeping the best and brightest. Those policies are gone now because
greed's needs have changed. And I genuinely mean 'greed' as in, 'greed
is good'. I respect greed...

.... but don't be fooled. Greed is an effective and efficient agent
in our society but it will cause workers to lose their jobs even more
effectively than environmental laws. When coupled with mismanagement,
it can and does result in bankruptcy. Business strategies and tactics
are too often based on junk research and data that is far from being
proven as fact. Why not environmental regulation too? :-)

I'm happy to let corporations chase the dollar and drive the economy for
me, but I know that I need government regulation to represent my other
interests and otherwise balance the forces of greed.

Sometimes it seems like it's all about self interest... but perhaps we
humans have more righteous motivations in our souls, but they surely
aren't expressed in corporate institutions.