• Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    According to Karl Marx (in Das Kapital ) the deregulation of industry for sake of profit is inevitable.

    It’s cheaper to capture government than it is to follow regulations (which, in turn, are meant to serve the public, sometimes protect the public from industry)

    Some nations are trying to make the capture process slow or difficult, but none have stopped it, and it only accelerates.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      But supporting their central point, Marx did propose a solution that would make have made microplastics evitable.

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        Only on the presumption that we didn’t detect it and aim for solutions sooner (e.g. invent circular recycling of plastics, replace major causes of microplastics with degradeable alternatives, say, vulcanized rubber with rubber and mushrooms).

        Also the society’s response in this late hour would probably be more effective than a disinformation campaign and a shrug.

        • optissima@lemmy.ml
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          21 hours ago

          I think it’s safe to assume that if we had stronger regulations, some of which were first implemented 1980, we’d be looking at significantly less than now.

          • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            20 hours ago

            Agreed, but 1980 was the beginning of the Reagan-Bush era and massive environmental deregulation, which only got worse through Clinton and George W. Bush.

            The great conservative movement killed conservation.

            • optissima@lemmy.ml
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              9 hours ago

              Your phrasing seems to indicate that you’re refuting my point when it strengthens it? Yeah if we had followed the Republican bare minimum instead of letting the bottom drop out it’d already be significantly less of an issue.