Who's afraid of the Green New Deal?
We needn’t be. It’s based on mainstream economics and offers fair and just climate change solutions.
By Robert Scott Gassler / For The Herald
With the recent activities by Greta Thunberg and the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, climate change has come back into the news. Under these circumstances, it becomes more importan to understand the Green New Deal passed by Democrats in the House.
The Green New Deal was proposed by the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and in some circles was immediately attacked for being too leftist. In fact, the Green New Deal is based on sound, mainstream economic principles.
(If you want to see the actual proposal, go to tinyurl.com/CongressGND.)
There are three main issues addressed by the proposal: climate change, inequality and infrastructure. The language is that of goals and general objectives, not of specific policies, but their interrelatedness is properly stressed.
The first goal is the restoration and preservation of the environment. Economist and Christian Kenneth Boulding laid out the issues in 1966 in his famous article “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth.” For more than a half-century it has been established that environmental regulation does not significantly increase business costs, and that spending on environmental improvements creates jobs and income just like spending on anything else. So action to preserve and restore our sacred environment is consistent with sound economic policy.
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https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/commentary-whos-afraid-of-the-green-new-deal/
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