Market Correction

Counting Our Blessings In Our Trash
2 May 2006

Editor, The Christian Science Monitor

Dear Editor:

I realize that it's de rigueur among the literary classes to bewail the gizmos and gadgets that so prominently facilitate the convenience of modern life. But reading Giles Slade's warning that we are throwing away too many cell-phones and iPods ("Technology made to be broken," May 2) puts a smile on my face and makes me thankful - thankful to live in an economy so staggeringly productive that we enjoy enough leisure and wealth actually to worry about the contents of landfills.

Such concerns are a blessing.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on Sunday February 18, 2007 at 3:21pm
giles slade (mail) (www):
I'm glad you've got a smile on your face, Donald. But you obviously don't have children or you'd be worried about the fact that the growth economy that is making you so short-sightedly happy is going to poison them from the global volume of permanent biological toxins that have seeped into their drinking water from the useless electronics you prematurely discarded. —But you're responding to an article I wrote last May, why not visit E, the environmental magazine's website and respond to my much more complete economic analysis there or buy a copy of Bill McKibben's new book DEEP ECONOMY, (NY, Henry Holt, 2007) and respond to the arguments it contains. Anyone reading this is free to contact me at gilesslade@hotmail.com or to read my book about how economist have tricked us into believing that consumerism is necessary to maintain a 'growth economy'. It's called MADE TO BREAK. (Harvard University Press, 2006) —Basically, Donald, you're a short-sighted fool who should know better because of your chosen profession. No wonder you work at such a bottom-feeding school...
2.19.2007 6:42am
Guest:
"No wonder you work at such a bottom-feeding school..."

Have you ever heard about the Public Choice Theory? *yawn*
2.19.2007 2:24pm

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