Sunday, June 25, 2017

This product is also yet another example of how the environment is cleaned by capitalism (cheap water filter)

See Cleaned by Capitalism XXXIX by Don Boudreaux.
"Available from Amazon.com for $14.99 (and from other retailers at a similar price) is this handy device that filters and decontaminates water whenever someone uses it as a straw.  Lifestraw removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria and 99.9% of waterborne protozoa.  Each Lifestraw filters the amount of water that the typical person drinks in the course of a year.  Made (I think in Poland) by the Swiss company Vestergaard, Lifestraw – from its conception to the system that allows it to be produced and distributed and sold at a price that’s about 2/3rds of the amount of money that an ordinary American worker earns in a single hour – is a marvelous example of human ingenuity and of the largely unseen and under-appreciated productive power of a globe-spanning market.  This product is also yet another example of how the environment is cleaned by capitalism.  And since Lifestraw became available, the process of reducing water pollution is a bit less of a public good than it was before the availability of Lifestraw.

I thank Warren Smith for sending me this article about Lifestraw."

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.