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 Originally Posted by rong
But how would we even know about it in a completely free market? Who would pay for the research? Why would they do it? I'm not referring to increased efficiency in products as that has verifiable value to the consumer. But on the larger scale why would we know about contamination of water sources in poor countries or problems with holes in the ozone layer or problems caused by mass deforestation and pollution. Business has no incentive for that information to raise it's head in the public domain.
There is certainly a market for providing that information to people. TripAdvisor, for example, makes money by providing a place for people to recommend or bash restaurants, bars, and hotels. Consequently, these establishments begin to be quite aware of companies like TripAdvisor and are thus far less likely to rip people off or provide poor service. TripAdvisor is a somewhat crude and simplistic example of what I mean, but this basic concept can be applied to tons of other subjects, such as commercial health inspection, police, security, military, pollution and pretty much anything else.
And even if there's not a direct profit in it (although I'm skeptical that this would ever be the case), there will always be organizations that care about that stuff enough to do research and come up with solutions.
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