Environmental Regulations not cheap
In Shankar Gupta's article, "Environmental Regulations not Cheap," he argues that further action taken by environmentalist causes, burden business activity, family incomes, developing countries, and also that there is no feasible way to enforce global laws to protect the environment. Well, I agree with those statements, and I believe that there is truth to what he is saying. However, I simply view the matter differently than Mr. Gupta. I believe that the opportunity costs you give up now to protect the environment, are well worth the reward of having future resources, and a healthy environment in which to live. I was taken back by how little the government spends on the environment, considering our GDP, and I do not believe that 263 billion dollars in projected costs to American business for the environment is the issue that has most importance. Since Mr. Gupta is concerned about the future of the parties affected by environmental regulation, it is important to think of the future itself. To think of environmental regulations as hindering business is a very backwards way
It may be true that externalities affect third parties with lowered salaries to workers, and raised prices to consumers, but it's a question of priorities and how you think of the matter. If you pretend for a moment that everyone cares about the environment equally, almost as its own entity with rights perhaps, it would be expected that businesses in our system would simply develop the cheapest ways to be environmentally friendly, stay competitive, and there would be little fuss about it. However, the real difference that creates an argument is that some people care more about the environment than extra profits, and others do not. Case-in-point, Mr. Gupta compares paying extra for clean air and clean water to luxury goods that we might chose to buy if we have excess money. The environment is not a luxury that we should choose to keep or not, it is a necessity. I also believe that it is highly unfair to blame environmental legislation and "draconian regulations" for hindering the ability for developing nations to get out of their state of impoverishment. That seems to me, as a poor scapegoat
Some common words found in the essay are:
Regulations Cheap, Kyoto Protocol, Case-in-point Gupta, Shankar Gupta, Shankar Gupta's, protect environment, scarce resources, regulations hindering, healthy environment, environmental regulations,
Approximate Word count = 743
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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