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RE: Markets Are Not Perfect: Why We Should Consider Pigouvian Taxes, Socializing Insurance, and Nationalizing Healthcare
I'd recommend breaking post like this up into several smaller posts.
The best solution that I can think of is to fine companies for polluting by way of a tax on pollution.
Rather than thinking of it as a fine, I'd say that it could be considered a rent. If you want to use the air that the rest of us breathe as a dump, then you have to rent the atmosphere from us (because you didn't make it and it belongs to all of us equally).
I like that. But the form of the policy, whether framed as a fine, tax, or rent, doesn't make much difference. It's like the Henry George proposal that I advocate: some people call it ground-rent while others call it land value tax. You can call it a "rent" or a "tax" but the difference is merely linguistic. But your comment made me realize that something like cap and trade could be seen as logically following from Georgism. I think I'm gonna explore this idea further. Thanks.