How can we save the environment?  We are told that capitalism just ravishes the environment.  There’s a difference between cliché and reality.  The truth will set you free.  As the late Walter Williams would say: this doesn’t even pass the smell test.  One of the common myths about capitalism: it ravishes the environment and uses all resources as quickly as possible.  However, capitalism preserves the environment, and resources along with it.  It is statism that ravishes the environment.

Capitalism has a long-term view.  Unlike statism, which has a very short-term view.  I like the example of a mine.   Take the owner of a mine.  How will he proceed?  Well, he will not mine it as quickly as possible.  That will destroy the capital value and all future income from the mine.  The owner will want to sell it for a profit.  That can’t happen if the mine is empty.  Say the resource in the mine is in short supply.  What will happen?

The owner of the mine will be able to supply the resource in short supply.  The price of the resource will rise, and the owner will make “unconscionable” profits, or price “gouge” as some say. However, the resource being supplied is in short supply.  Far from ravishing the mine, the mine is sustainable and providing a public good—if you will.  What happens to the mine under statists conditions?  Are resources preserved?

Under statist conditions, the mine will be owned by the state.  This gives the illusion that everyone owns the mine.  The state may lease the mine for a term, maybe one year.  The company will have access to the resources for the year.  The party to the lease agreement will not be worried about the capital stock and future income.  They will mine the resources as quickly as possible because they won’t have access to them after one year.  Under statism, the resources are ravaged.  When there is a shortage, the mine will be empty. 

This redutcio ad absurdum can be used for any resources.  As you can see, it is capitalism that can save the environment and statism that ravishes it. Thus, the myth of capitalist “greed” is peddled, and this ravishes the environment.  The opposite is true.  Society is severely harmed under the guise of helping.  It’s easy to accept free or any other statist nonsense.  We must use reason.  These capitalist myths wouldn’t persist if education was better.  If it’s bad in theory, its bad in practice, and statism has always been bad in practice.