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he business and
political establishment's reverence for free markets should not blind its
members to the fact that even rigid adherence to neoliberal economic theology
provides space for government interference to correct for market failure which
distorts resource allocation and impoverishes the commonwealth.
Market prices should reflect the external costs of
activities which impose costs on society. The most egregious example is the
failure to incorporate the cost to health and the environment caused by global
warming from burning fossil fuels.
In 1989 Margaret Thatcher told a UN climate forum: "We
should always remember that free markets are a means to an end. They would
defeat their object if by their output they did more damage to the quality of
life through pollution than the wellbeing they achieve by the production of
goods and services."
Read Kenneth Davidson’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Why Dan Andrews should close the Hazelwood Power Station”.
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