>people are against free markets because it brings about environmental

>>2130833
[Citation needed]

>>2130841
>rise in living standards

for the top 10 percent maybe

and by the way, cheap unneeded shit from china really has nothing to do with people's standard of living

>>2131149
Yeah because everyone having a device in their pocket which enables them to find competing goods from across the world and access to all of human knowledge isn't an increase in the standard of living

LOL

>>2130833
>people are against free markets because it brings about environmental damage yet in turn this rise in living standards due to cheaper goods and services
you know what would make those goods and services cost nothing

if people didn't buy them in the first place

also lol at rising living standards, living standards have decreased everywhere except the west
>>2131197
it isn't an increase if you can't buy most of those competing goods

>>2131202
>it isn't an increase if you can't buy most of those competing goods

Except people can.

Are you a retard? If people weren't buying those goods, why is GDP growth positive across the West?

Really makes me think!

>>2131149

>for the top 10 percent maybe

I'm far from all in 100% capitalism is always awesome but basically everyone but the hyper-poor have had dramatic increases in standard of living in the past couple of centuries that free markets have been dominant.

Obviously the top 10% see the greatest income change, but the important shifts in standards of living are available to a vast majority of western society.

>>2131224
>If people weren't buying those goods, why is GDP growth positive across the West?
i know you're baiting but w/e
>>2131237
>but basically everyone but the hyper-poor have had dramatic increases in standard of living in the past couple of centuries that free markets have been dominant.
or the past couple of centuries that the west has been looting the rest of the world and exporting opium and crashing the indian fabric market

this thread is really sizzling my bacon

>>2130833
Because the focus of the current market leaders is too far removed from researching alternative sources of energy. In fact, having people become too aware of environmental issues is damaging to the leading energy corporations, it's why Exxon Mobil kept the lid on climate change research and discussion for so many years. And poor people are disproportionately affected by climate change meaning market leaders have less incentives to go green than general society does - democratic direction of energy policy can counter this.

>>2131289
WRONG.

Regulation will only lead people against alternative energy.

Here's an example of how it would work in a free market:


>Oil prices increase
>jane is buying a car
>jane wants a car which uses low fuel and long lasting
>jane buys an energy effecient car which has long mileage
>many people do this because of increased oil prices
>this leads to more demand
>car companies start investing research into energy efficient cars
>begin to compete with one another
>initial expensive demand hurdle is cured when competition and supply floods the market
>more people buy
>energy efficient cars become the norm

>>2131308
Oil prices will continue to flunctuate up and down week by week as new sources are discovered and means of exploiting these sources are developed, meanwhile the global temperature will keep going up and stay up for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.

And cars are already becoming more energy efficient anyway - but emissions don't go down because they keep using fossil fuels (oil) and as we become more efficient at using those our incentives to use it increase also. It's a market trap.

>>2131308
there is no incentive to do that when oil(also coal, if we are talking about producing electricity) is really cheap, as would result.in a deregulated free market for that stuff.
And oil will always be cheaper than alternatives in the coming decades.
Add to that the rebound effect ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_effect_(conservation) ) and by the time oil prices become a major problem, the planet is too fucked for capitalistic competition to be of any use.