Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "Steven Pinker: Progress, Despite Everything" video.

It's very difficult to tell how much good was actually done by such things as Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Those acts aren't passed without a critical mass within the larger society that support it. And with that critical mass comes all the social and market forces for greener products and services. I'm not sure we accomplished as much with legislation as taking that same money and beefing up our tort system, so that it's easier for individuals to sue big corporations. By the time the government steps in and pretends to lead, the society's already changing things, organically. With laws and regs, you could still be doing a great deal of harm with your paper plant's SO2 emissions, even though the EPA says you meet the government's standard for SO2 emissions, even though everybody downwind of that paper plant has to breathe that nasty-smelling stuff. If not for the EPA, it's even conceivable that social pressure would've pushed paper plants to switch to a chlorite (ClO3) process that's actually CHEAPER and pollutes less, because society's own organic means of self-improvement wouldn't be as atrophied as our dependence on government to protect us from everything hadn't atrophied those built-in mechanisms. People would be more aware and more active if they couldn't kid themselves that Uncle Sam will make everything OK for us. If government weren't running interference, the sulfite process might already be abandoned. Its ONLY advantage is that your pretty white toilet paper doesn't turn yellow after 2 months on the shelf. I think people would be OK with yellowish or beige toilet paper if they knew that the white stuff meant more pollution. It'd be a great way to virtue signal when you have people over for a party! But the government says it's OK for your whole town to smell like monkey butt.
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