Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Bees, Natural Resources, and Economic Value

So how much value do bees provide to our economic system? What is the economic value of the natural resources around us? This video does a great job explaining externalities.



Ep. 5: A BEE'S INVOICE | Adrian Grenier from We The Economy on Vimeo.

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Having learned about the concept of Tragedy of the Commons before in a few different science classes, it was cool to actually see it being talked about in a different way. I agree with the fact that there needs to be restrictions/ more patrolling of the natural resources and the pollution caused by humans. The fact that this can be done in a way where we can also help the economy is even better. I know that there are some types of policies in place to help reduce C02 use and clean the environment, but they haven't been very effective. The policies proposed in the video seem a lot more likely to work and more beneficial for everybody.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The bank account metaphor made me think about how the depletion of natural resources seems to be the need-it-now consumerism of our world today. If firms invested in their resources rather than depleting them, i.e. planting more trees at a fast enough speed to be available for later years, they would be better off in the long run. This is the same as the bank account; leaving some money in the account accumulates interest and ends up with more profit in the long run. I think corporations will find the wormholes in any government regulations or use their big money to pressure politicians to avoid regulating environmental depletion. I think this problem is going to be fixed only with a change in the now, now, now culture cultivated by our consumers and corporations today.

    ReplyDelete