I learned the concept of deadweight loss in economics class in business school. From Wikipedia:

In economics, deadweight loss is the loss of societal economic welfare due to production/consumption of a good at a quantity where marginal benefit (to society) does not equal marginal cost (to society).

Here is a picture of the outside of a bar like probably hundreds of bars and restaurants in New York City and likely thousands across the country. Note what look like glowing red lights. They aren’t lights. They’re heat lamps. Now note the empty tables beneath them.

These lamps are heating the outdoors where nobody is. They are simply burning fossil fuels, polluting and depleting, for no benefit to anyone. As far as I can tell, nobody seems to notice or care. I pass situations like this one all fall and winter.

I’ve posted about such practices before and will again, for example

• The social cost of gratuitous plunder and destruction of life, liberty, and property
• More gratuitous destruction of life, liberty, and property in my neighborhood
• I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 1: Takeout instead of food.

My posts highlight that our government is violating its own Constitution, which says no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. Pollution and depletion deprive people of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, which these lights do, with no benefit to anyone.

It’s sickening, literally.

---

• ← Year 16, day 1: posting here daily
• The Coldest Day of the Year →