Pollution as Moral Coercion: Culture, Risk Perception, and Libertarian Values

What is pollution? According to Peter H. Aranson, “Public policy regards as pollution any man-made or naturally occurring substance (for example, smoke or sewage) or condition (for exam- ple, noise, heat, or radiation) that is believed to threaten human health or economic welfare Evidently, pollution is a bad and not a good thing. Alas, bad things happen all the time. There are forms of government and ways of life that make it their explicit pur- pose to guard individuals against misfortune. The “social insurance state’’ and the “welfare state’’ are but a few of the prominent designations of regimes that attempt to guard their members against misfortune. Libertarianism, I take it, is not one of them. So long as individuals are able to try again, and there are no legal limits on transactions, failure serves a positive purpose. It cleanses the system. Without failure on the part of some participants there can be no success, no allocation of resources to higher order uses, no consumer sovereignty. For if there can be no individual failure, there can be no switching of resources away from activities that are unprofitable. Failure is more important then success in that it leaves the way open to try new and better combinations that meet more widespread preferences.