Most Benefits have Costs
12 February 2007
The Editor, The Baltimore Sun
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To the Editor:
In "What Others Are Saying" (Feb. 12) you repeat part of a Boston Globe editorial that argues against the nomination of Susan Dudley to lead the agency charged with overseeing federal regulations. What you repeat asserts that "Only an undue faith in the ability of the market to correct problems created by industry could have led Ms. Dudley to oppose, as she did, EPA's efforts to keep arsenic out of drinking water."
If you want a deeper sense of what others are saying, read Prof. Cass Sunstein's writings on regulations designed to reduce arsenic in drinking water. Prof. Sunstein is a respected and energetic advocate of active government; he certainly has no "undue faith" in markets. Yet even he admits that the benefits of further reducing arsenic in drinking water might be swamped by the costs of doing so.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, The Baltimore Sun
--
To the Editor:
In "What Others Are Saying" (Feb. 12) you repeat part of a Boston Globe editorial that argues against the nomination of Susan Dudley to lead the agency charged with overseeing federal regulations. What you repeat asserts that "Only an undue faith in the ability of the market to correct problems created by industry could have led Ms. Dudley to oppose, as she did, EPA's efforts to keep arsenic out of drinking water."
If you want a deeper sense of what others are saying, read Prof. Cass Sunstein's writings on regulations designed to reduce arsenic in drinking water. Prof. Sunstein is a respected and energetic advocate of active government; he certainly has no "undue faith" in markets. Yet even he admits that the benefits of further reducing arsenic in drinking water might be swamped by the costs of doing so.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Friday October 19, 2007 at 10:11am