But, let me add two other points if I may:
1. INVIDIOUS COMPARISONS
I REALLY didn't mean by some kind of veiled inference to hold MY
generation (yup I'm over 50) up as some kind of ideal, invidiously compared
to those that followed. Every generation is in large measure an outgrowth
of the soil they were raised in. In the 60's -- per Maslovian malarchy --
the growing economy filled our bellies permitting us to fret --
excessively -- about our souls. This then was directed outward into
activism largely as a matter of self interest to avoid being killed in
Vietnam. So the good side of that generation -- not to say there weren't
self indulgent and many other ugly sides -- does not reflect our genes but
rather our times. Just like, to look back even further, the reason for
nobility during the depression. When Arthur Miller was asked in the "greed"
decade of the 80's why there was so much more nobility during the 30's, he
opined that he thought about it a lot and concluded that "people answer the
call to nobility better when it's accompanied by the call to lunch."
2. ECONOMICS
Like Bill I'm an economist, but I don't believe that the dismal science
is uber alis. I do think that non-economic, societal pressures enter into
the economic calculations of business.
There is a reason that investors poured almost $2 billion in deinking
capacity between 1990 and 1995, far beyond anything before. It would not
have happened but for the laws that established minimum recycled content in
newspapers and the belief that public pressure would insure that those laws
would be enforced. Etc. Etc. Without those policy intrusions, recycling
(beyond the historic scrap metal, commercial paper scrappers) would not be
anywhere near where it is today. By saying that, I do not mean that we
should push recycling that doesn't have any economic rationale. But, I do
feel that we should first factor into that analysis the environmental
externalities.
Peter
____________________________________
Peter Anderson
RecycleWorlds Consulting
4513 Vernon Blvd. Ste. 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Phone:(608) 231-1100/Fax: (608) 233-0011
E-mail:recycle@msn.fullfeed.com