Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Excellent thoughts by Matt Yglesias
If more folks on the left thought like this, I'd be much more likely to consider myself on the left- albeit with some serious disagreements. Call me an idiot, a reactionary, or whatever, but I still suspect that a lot of lefties are overemphasizing the importance of climate change, and tending to overlook the enormous humanitarian importance of economic development and immigration liberalization. Still, (liberal) libertarians ought to take folks like Matt Yglesias really seriously.
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Yep.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if the left is wrong: no big deal, the economics is a trade off and maybe we even get a better/more varied energy economy as a result.
If the right is wrong: we're doomed!
:)
As a scientist I am clearly on the side of good science and the political position of the left is more compelling, even if hyperbolic.
This certainly seems possible, but why do we have to choose between the two? I guess what I'm saying is, based on the very little knowledge I have, that we should not let global warming eclipse other concerns.
ReplyDelete"Of course, if the left is wrong: no big deal, the economics is a trade off and maybe we even get a better/more varied energy economy as a result."
There are important trade-offs here, though. Resources spent on preventing further warming could be spent on alleviating extreme poverty, for example. I'm not saying this implies that we should not invest in preventing further warming, only that these trade-offs ought to be taken seriously, and that it's possible that political zeal on this particular issue could crowd out other important goals.