Ironically, the bread lines noted are a socialist response to mitigate a failure of Capitalism. The climate crisis and a multitude of environmental disasters are also failures of Capitalism. And Capitalists are obstructing social efforts to fix the problems.

Classical Liberalism offers up nice and neat theories about how free markets are the cat’s pajamas, but they do not stand up well in the real world.

Perhaps the senator hasn't heard of food banks or SNAP? Our modern version of bread lines.

Because the hungry have become too numerous for simple soup kitchens.

My friend, "externalization" is one of the most important and discussed topics in macroeconomics, yet you dismiss it with a handwave. That's like discussing "monuments" but asserting that "man- made structures" don't count. In a previous post I provided a short definition and link to keep the discussion on track. You have spent some time discussing "externalities" without using the term: taxes and tariffs are externalities, too; as is that "prosperity" you keep going on about. Environmental impacts are just one form of externality.

Most government policy focuses on addressing external factors to the market and business enterprises, generally: tax cuts, carbon taxes, environmental regulation, regulatory reform, local tax benefits, fair labor standards. Those are all efforts to address externalities in a capitalist (or any other economic) system.

Oh, yeah, baby... what he said!

It sounds as though government's primary concern is being the handmaiden to capitalism. I wonder how that's working out....

Maybe you missed the parenthetical? "(or any other economic) system"

That might be quite a narrow viewpoint, though true in many instances. But my concern is more where the government manages to impose regulations intended to reduce or eliminate negative externalities - this is where much of the contention between the left and the right occurs, with one side wanting to escape their reasonable responsibilities (for more short-term profits) and the other wanting more protections for society and the environment.

It is beyond belief that Senator Hatrack doesn't seem to have a shred of understanding about externalization of costs, as it is a primary interest of unethical businesspeople (mostly Conservatives in my observation...)

Sadly, it appears we will get no more retorts from SenHat. It is devilishly hard to keep conservative voices here anymore. What I have been hoping for is some serious conservative poster that can make points based upon a reasonable analysis of evidence. I used to play that role occasionally, but I have lost my passion for doing so, given the damage to American values "conservative" ideas have wrought throughout our history. Friend chunk needs a foil!

Don't expect me to say "Stop being such mean girls to the Cons" because in the end this is a marketplace of ideas, and sound ideas sell, and unsound ideas don't sell.

And by "sell" I don't mean they make people change their minds, I mean people respect sound ideas even if they don't agree.

I will continue to try to lure more Cons here but they're going to have to be able to take the heat just like anyone else does.

To sell an idea what works best is to present it by not talking down to the person you are presenting it to. Very few of the liberals here do that. They have a tendency to lecture people in their belief that what they believe is what everyone believes. That is definitely not true. Many of the replies I have received here have been condescending lectures that could not sell a glass of water to man on the Mohave desert.