Tabarrok in China

Alex Tabarrok is in China and has had first hand experience of Chinese pollution. Tabarrok writes

An hour and a half out of central Beijing, traveling through orchards of apples and pears and still the smog blankets the fields obscuring the view. Pollution like this I have never seen.

And yet the intensity of the pollution makes me optimistic. Pollution in China isn't like the demise of the snail darter or some wispy thing that might take a few weeks off your life if you live long enough. Pollution here irritates, it chokes and it kills young and old. Pollution like this people are willing to pay to avoid and as the economy grows the Chinese are willing to pay more and more.

An interesting point about China is had it seems wealthy enough to have a manufacturing sector which can manufacture a lot of pollution but not wealthy enough to feel that its right and worthwhile to sacrifice at least some growth for an improvement in air and water quality. The longer the government waits to begin the cleanup, the larger the problem will be. The question is; would a government in a more democratic state already have been forced to clean up the environment whereas the more totalitarian government of China can't be so forced. Do democratic and totalitarian governments see the trade-off between growth and environment that differently? Are the incentives they faced that different? And do people see the trade-off differently from their government? If they do, and are willing to trade-off a little more growth for a cleaner environment than the government, then they will be better able to enforce those preferences in a democracy than in a totalitarian state.