Time: "Environmental Hazard"

In an article describing the difficulties had by Sanyo, a Japanese electronics maker who tried to “go green”, Time Magazine reports: “The economics of green products still does not make sense for many items” (Walsh 2007). When we speak of economics we refer to neoclassical economics where natural capital and waste are ignored as are taxes and subsidies. It is not that the economics does not make sense for these items, but instead it is that when other non-green items are subsidized by government the free market operates as one might expect: the lower priced item gets purchased. The perverse subsidies working in modern economies are unsustainable and must be eliminated.

Suggested Literature:
Perverse Subsidies: How tax dollars can undercut the environment and the economy, by Norman Myers and Jennifer Kent. Island Press, Washington DC: 2001.

The article referenced was found in the April 30, 2007 edition of Time Magazine in the Global Business section.