I wasn't aware the gov had flooded the market, only that they had sold off a bunch of their reserves. However, the gov didn't set prices or mess with regs to get it done, just mandated that their reserves be sold off. Surely this could have been a boon for a solid enterprising entrepreneur. Regardless, it does show a lack in my info there.
And regardless, the free market only takes into account selling and buying. It doesn't care about the costs to human life, nor environmental quality. Give the likes of those that make and sell palm oil, regular Dino sludge, even Greek yogurt, and many others, environmental costs always seem to be an after thought that is only addressed once the people complain and the gov finally steps in. Which, by the time that happens, irreversible harm has already been done. The many oil "leaks" around the US, many more we may not even know about as the leak detection system in our pipelines doesn't work as well as advertised. The dumping of hundreds of tons of whey acid into local waterways. So long as destroying the planet is more profitable than keeping it clean, no company will step up to do so. The layman is usually to removed, uninterested in the processes to get their cheap goods or to uninformed of the process to make those goods to force the issue through the free market.
This leaves environmentalists and the gov to create policies that incentives clean production and harshly punishes those that would continue to pollute. Given the current and past history of industrialized production, I have very little faith in a free market policing itself.
To expand a bit on the people aspect. Would you rather have a straight democracy or something akin to the electoral college system we have now? There is good reason for this. Direct democracies would not work for a variety of reasons. The minority have no representation, the majority can be easily deceived. The layman, for all their worth, are typically only fluent in a few skills, typically none that would help them in deciding the effects of certain policies. That's why we have specialists and subject matter experts that inform our president and politicians. That's why companies hire contractors and so on. To think that a free market will do what's best is fool hearty IMHO. Could you imagine where networking tech, telephone services and the internet would be right now if AT&T were allowed to have continued on without the gov stepping in? I don't we would be enjoying this debate right now personally. Certainly would be choosing a lot more, and probably be more stifled and controlled. Now, you don't need to agree with me. We all have our own experiences, ideas and information that sway our beliefs and notions. Mine lead me to believe that just as in uncontrolled governement is bad for the people, so is a free reign, unchecked market place. If having a clean, healthy planet for us and our future generations isn't enough to make changes, which it appears sadly isn't then something else needs to be done. In this age, in this decade I dare say, we are sitting at the apex. We can step up, make the changes needed and come out onto the line that will lead us to health and continued survival. Or we can keep flogging the pedal, blow past the braking point and smash our planet into the wall, severally crippling ourselves and our chances to continue living prosperous, healthy lives. Relying on a free market, which only changes when there is a profitable reason too, I feel, will surely doom us to the later.
