A short piece from a recent edition of The New York Times, is titled "Is Environmentalism a Luxury Good?" The piece points to a paper out of the National Bureau of Economic Research that seems to indicate that when times are tough, many of us put issues like the environment behind things like paying the bills.
This really shouldn't be surprising. People make choices on how to use scarce resources. Their immediate short-term wants tend to take time preference over longer-term wants. I've often told students that issues like the environment, arts and culture, and social justice have a better chance of being addressed when the economy is humming along than when we are afraid for our livelihood. Thus to connect to my other post…the sooner the economy gets back on track, the more likely we’ll start worrying about things other than the economy.
I'd welcome your thoughts.
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7 comments:
Probably environmental concern does increase with income, but I think that is not the only thing going on. During a recession, people do not just cut back on luxury goods. They cut back on any expenditures that are easily varied. For example, they cut back on food (hardly a luxury, but easily varied) but not so much on housing (more of a luxury, but not easily varied in the short run). So maybe environmental concern is something you can do without for a while, like eating beans, with the idea that you will go back to steak when times are better.
Also, the practical manifestation of taking a stand for a specific environmental goal, for example, action against climate change, may be you have to endorse a painful policy like higher gas taxes, at a time when your household budget is already pinched. Rather than saying "yes, there is a climate change problem, but I am too selfish to deal with it right now" it is easier to fool yourself by saying "no, there is no climate change problem."
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