Re: [unrev-II] Re: Mike T. & Eric A.

From: Eric Armstrong (eric.armstrong@eng.sun.com)
Date: Mon Jan 24 2000 - 19:13:17 PST


From: "Eric Armstrong" <eric.armstrong@eng.sun.com>

  From: johnwerneken@netzero.net

  I suggest expanding the Market. Let all of us be owners of
  that water and then let us sue the leakers. Common law would
  evolve to put a price on our MBTE-flavored water. With a
  price on this activity, the oil distributors would move
  towards fixing leaks or using another method besides MBTE -
  and the price would give them an incentive to solve the
  problem in the most cost-effective way.

  Or think big and let all of us own the air. Then we could
  sue and get a price placed on the original polution and
  collect from auto makers, oil companies, and maybe road
  builders and land developers. This might force a better
  (cheaper) solution than gas additives.
The courts are proving to be remarkably effective (although terribly slow) for this kind of thing.
Recent tobacco lawsuits have set the precedent that companies are responsible for long term, low level harm generated by their products. I figured we would be well into next century before anyone thought to extend that principle to food producers, but it appears that class action lawsuits are even now underway! (yay!) Polluters, for sure! The financial ramifications of such suits may well be responsible for forcing a shift towards "corporate ethics"
in our time!

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