The degrowth movement wants to intentionally shrink the economy to address climate change, and create lives with less stuff, less work, and better well-being. But is it a utopian fantasy?
Exec's don't have that much headroom left to squeeze out of customers and workers. If they raise prices or lower wages too much, their product or jobs will be uncompetitive with companies that emit less co2 and thus need to pay less to offset it.
How many different gas stations do you see during your daily travels? Are the prices all over the place or are they the same? What are the price differences between different manufacturers of the same type of TV? They're all pretty much the same with one or two very high end or very low end models being the exception. There won't be much price competition because that hurts businesses, if one of your business peers raises their prices you are now under pressure to RAISE your prices so that you're not loosing potential profits.
I'm pretty sure that manufacturing any particular type of thing or extracting any particular type of resource will produce the same amount of environmental degradation regardless of which company's name is on the paperwork. Exxon doesn't have some special way to extract oil that is better for the envrioment than the one ConocoPhillips uses. So there won't be any competition that way.
It will be cheaper in most cases to decrease emissions instead of paying for offsets.
If the emissions are directly correlated to the thing they are selling, then no. Decreasing emissions means a company is pumping less oil or making less iPhones or selling less gasoline. This gives a company's competitors who aren't decreasing their production a way to capture its market share because somebody else will still have product to sell to meet the demand. So it there would be no net positive change so long as competition in the free market is allowed in this type of situation.
If the emissions are directly correlated to the thing they are selling, then no.
It's never directly correlated. You can always transport by ship instead of plane or use more local resources or use less material. There's always efficiency that can be squeezed out of a system, and a company that doesn't pursue cost efficiency in that area will fall behind. But right now there's no reason to do so.
Are the prices all over the place or are they the same?
Gas or the food things?
Often the prices are all the same because the higher cost ones have gone out of business or adapted to the lower cost method. Price fixing (which is what you're describing) is hard to do when there is a lot of competition, since any one company can disrupt the whole thing and make more money because of it. But it is more likely were competition is scarce. In duopolies or similarly few players, they can price fix more easily. That's why I am in favor of nationalizing industries like that, or at least they need more oversight.
How many different gas stations do you see during your daily travels? Are the prices all over the place or are they the same? What are the price differences between different manufacturers of the same type of TV? They're all pretty much the same with one or two very high end or very low end models being the exception. There won't be much price competition because that hurts businesses, if one of your business peers raises their prices you are now under pressure to RAISE your prices so that you're not loosing potential profits.
I'm pretty sure that manufacturing any particular type of thing or extracting any particular type of resource will produce the same amount of environmental degradation regardless of which company's name is on the paperwork. Exxon doesn't have some special way to extract oil that is better for the envrioment than the one ConocoPhillips uses. So there won't be any competition that way.
If the emissions are directly correlated to the thing they are selling, then no. Decreasing emissions means a company is pumping less oil or making less iPhones or selling less gasoline. This gives a company's competitors who aren't decreasing their production a way to capture its market share because somebody else will still have product to sell to meet the demand. So it there would be no net positive change so long as competition in the free market is allowed in this type of situation.
It's never directly correlated. You can always transport by ship instead of plane or use more local resources or use less material. There's always efficiency that can be squeezed out of a system, and a company that doesn't pursue cost efficiency in that area will fall behind. But right now there's no reason to do so.
Gas or the food things?
Often the prices are all the same because the higher cost ones have gone out of business or adapted to the lower cost method. Price fixing (which is what you're describing) is hard to do when there is a lot of competition, since any one company can disrupt the whole thing and make more money because of it. But it is more likely were competition is scarce. In duopolies or similarly few players, they can price fix more easily. That's why I am in favor of nationalizing industries like that, or at least they need more oversight.