Toyota: "No Financial Justification in US for Buying Hybrids"

[Il_Mostro]

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set up a system to just automatically pay their neighbors without going through the expense of lawsuits.

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How about the people further away? Pollution doesn't stay locally. Just poking a bit, it's an interesting thought experiment.

[tylerdurden]

If the people further away have damages, let them pursue them. As it stands now, governments encourage and protect polluters by setting "acceptable standards". Anyone that pollutes below that arbitrary level is (basically) immune from claims, even if they cause actual, measurable damages. That's *exactly* how externalities are artificially created (they don't exist in a true free market).

[Il_Mostro]

there certainly is a problem with measurements in all this. many problems due to pollution isn't really measurable in the short-term. or indeed in the long run.