CDR: Re: Insurance (was: why should it be trusted?)

[Sampo A Syreeni]

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000, Anonymous wrote:

>> So who gets the bid on the environment ? There are some commons 
>> that can not be eliminated so easily.
>
>Generally, this would be water and air. If someone pollutes the air 
>over their land, that's ok. As soon as the pollution crosses into 
>your land, you sue for damages.

By the same basic tenet you can sue for theft - it was your pollution, not
the neighbour's. As you can see there is no causation because one cannot
control the air.

>People are concerned about the long term value of their property, so they
>will have a disincentive to pollute. 

Really? People have every incentive to pollute as long as they can either
keep it a secret or make sure they are not around the shit hits the
fan. Radioactive waste is a prime example of the latter approach.

Sampo Syreeni <decoy at iki.fi>, aka decoy, student/math/Helsinki university