Damn Good Quote

I read a very good paragraph recently, one that clearly articulates something that I have been battling to get to grips with in my head and in this blog for some time. Something that I feel is at the core of so many things that 'just aren't right' with our society. So I'm going to reproduce it. Here goes:

"The great failure of market economies is that they take no measure of externalities: if something doesn't have a market value, it doesn't exist; this is what the economists call 'the tragedy of the commons.' The emergence and development of the environmental movement pioneered the understanding of how markets, in a bid to drive down costs, 'externalise' them - or, to put it more crudely, get someone else (usually the taxpayer) to pay for them; for example, polluting a river is cheaper than processing and recycling it. In just the same way, markets externalise the social costs of their way of working; it is left to individuals - and their overworked NHS doctors - to deal with the exhaustion, work-related depression, stress and the care deficit."

Madeleine Bunting (2004) Willing Slaves: How The Overwork Culture Is Ruling Our Lives.

To me, that sums it up really neatly.