Lobbyist Grover Norquist famously said that he wanted to “Starve the Beast” to reduce the size of government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
There’s just one problem. Not everything can be done by private enterprise. Don’t get me wrong, I am a strong believer in capitalism and private enterprise. But common sense makes it obvious that capitalism requires a profit, and not everything worth doing generates profit. Would you want the military to be run as a profit-making enterprise? Or streets and roads in your town? Or the local police or fire departments? Or keeping your food, water, and air safe and clean?
Climate change is exactly one of those externalities that requires government intervention.
Originally published at Political Irony.