The key to Friedman's analysis is the word "theoretically." Because, in reality China did no such thing. The country is still awash in plastic bags. And though you can be sent to the state's dungeons for innumerable crimes, using such bags isn't one of them -- yet.
Still, at least in theory, China is awesome because it can efficiently impose the right policies, right?
Wrong.
For years, I've been going after Friedman hammer and tongs for his authoritarian fetish. But perhaps the most damning critique is that banning plastic bags isn't necessarily the optimal policy.
A new study by the Environment Agency of England finds that those thin plastic bags have a smaller carbon footprint than reusable plastic or cotton satchels as well as disposable paper bags. According to "Evidence: Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags," you'd have to reuse a fashionable cotton bag at least 131 times to equal the low carbon footprint of a simple plastic bag.
If you reuse a plastic bag -- as a wastebasket liner perhaps -- they pull even further away as the most green technology.
Also, as other studies have shown, those trendy reusable bags provide a wonderful breeding ground for E. coli and other bacteria. That is, unless you wash them regularly. But if you do that, as my American Enterprise Institute colleague Ken Green notes, all that bleach, soap and hot water expand their carbon footprint as well.
Read more: Fads & myths make for poor public policy - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_731400.html#ixzz1KGLPnixc
Demonstrations of Hayek's observations are everywhere. Beware the nice guy with a fetish for authoritarianism.
The superiority of undirected design is unquestionable - "the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design."
http://apolloswabbie.blogspot.com/2010/05/classic-quotes-ferguson.html
Still, at least in theory, China is awesome because it can efficiently impose the right policies, right?
Wrong.
For years, I've been going after Friedman hammer and tongs for his authoritarian fetish. But perhaps the most damning critique is that banning plastic bags isn't necessarily the optimal policy.
A new study by the Environment Agency of England finds that those thin plastic bags have a smaller carbon footprint than reusable plastic or cotton satchels as well as disposable paper bags. According to "Evidence: Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags," you'd have to reuse a fashionable cotton bag at least 131 times to equal the low carbon footprint of a simple plastic bag.
If you reuse a plastic bag -- as a wastebasket liner perhaps -- they pull even further away as the most green technology.
Also, as other studies have shown, those trendy reusable bags provide a wonderful breeding ground for E. coli and other bacteria. That is, unless you wash them regularly. But if you do that, as my American Enterprise Institute colleague Ken Green notes, all that bleach, soap and hot water expand their carbon footprint as well.
Read more: Fads & myths make for poor public policy - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_731400.html#ixzz1KGLPnixc
Demonstrations of Hayek's observations are everywhere. Beware the nice guy with a fetish for authoritarianism.
The superiority of undirected design is unquestionable - "the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design."
http://apolloswabbie.blogspot.com/2010/05/classic-quotes-ferguson.html
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