: Can Capitalism clean up pollution and whatnot.: If it's gonna do the job then it's going to have to be money that provides the motivating force. If you spread an environmentalist message around at schools and on T.V then it'll motivate the masses to buy green, i.e no CFC's, no polluting factory products, dolphin freindly net caught tuna etc. The trouble is you have to get strict laws to stop the crafty marketing bastards from writing 'green' on any old package.
So if we gave the government the power to bring the marketers to heel, this might do something...
: When Shell were gonna dump the Brent Spar (I think it was Shell and Brent Spar, correct me if I'm wrong.) into the north sea (could have been a different sea but the point is unchanged.) Germany voted with their wallets and did a huge boycott of Shell. This got results because the public used their money AGAINST the big companies.
: The point is that laws to stop pollution only go so far, what's needed to really clean up the problem (assuming the problem exists, and can be cleaned up, neither are definite) is a huge public opinion based boycott campaigns of any companies found responsible by an INDEPENDENT body.
You'd need an extremely powerful boycott to accomplish this, but it can be done. At any rate, you'd need a lot of power over people to organize such a boycott, a power not gained merely by trusting market forces.
The point is that organizing the public to exert its power against the capitalists is what's necessary, if you want to do anything about them that is.
None.
