Right and Wrong

In all of this, then, what we need to do is restore these basic principles of right and wrong. Ideally, the courts should do this, but the courts, as indicated earlier, have failed to do the job. That is why property owners are turning increasingly to their legislators, to try to persuade them to bring some measure of reason and principle to this matter. In this effort, however, we should not delude ourselves: the opposition is organized, rich, and powerful; they reach legislatures, the media, and corporate America with ease; and they have shown themselves again and again to be willing to play fast and loose with the truth. The basic truth is that if we want to prohibit environmental harms, we have to pay property owners nothing, whereas if we want to provide environmental goods, we have to pay for them. The real concern of environmentalists, of course, is that if those goods are placed on budget, if their costs are brought to light and the public is made to pay for them, demand will go down. What a surprise! People demand less of something if they have to pay for it. Once public goods are placed on budget, citizens will know what they cost. Once citizens know that, they can decide whether they are worth it.