“the biggest polluter per capita.”

Oh, Yes!! Yes, yes!! Can’t you imagine Patrick Henry’s cry (were he only enlightened, as we are today) – “Give me waste management or give me dearth!”

What’s the cure for U.S. pollution? Why, I suppose it would be the dissolution of property rights on the expectation that one will keep others’ property cleaner than one’s own. Interesting theory.

Or perhaps, maybe, attributing the prevalence of “pollution” to the presence of a political economy based on free markets is just a silly idea. Doesn’t even explain the litter left behind at Woodstock.

My belief is that Americans since the 60′s have become probably the most self-important, self-centered, self-serving, and self-indulgent people the earth has ever seen. Perhaps – just perhaps, mind you – those qualities have more to do with the propensity to waste and then throw away, than the underlying system of political economy that has produced such a wealth of consumer goods in the first place. Ya think?

For some reason this also reminds me of a study I read not that long ago from which I remember precious little except this:

Per capita, the U.S. throws away three times as much container-waste as Mexico.

Per capita, Mexico throws away three times as much food as the U.S.

Which of these would be considered “pollution”? Well, never mind.

As I recall, this result was linked to inadequate “containerization” in Mexico – be there such a word.