1. Jonathan Adler makes the following assertion: "The fundamental problem with existing environmental laws is that they embody a command-and-control, government-knows-best mentality. Conventional policy approaches proceed from the assumption that markets “fail” to address environmental concerns. Government intervention is called for wherever market activities impact environmental quality. Yet there is no end to the range of private activities which generate environmental effects, and centralized regulatory agencies are ill-equipped to handle myriad ecological interactions triggered or impacted by private activity. As environmental analyst Richard Stewart noted, “the system has grown to the point where it amounts to nothing less than a massive effort at Soviet-style planning of the economy to achieve environmental goals.”

What does the term "command and control" mean, how did the former Soviet Union apply this concept?

2. Adler also asserts that: “The conventional paradigm of environmental policy justifies the regulation of economic activity because it assumes all activities—from purchasing clothing to driving a car to turning on a light bulb—have an impact on the environment that is not factored into the cost of the product or service. Economic central planning may be intellectually and historically discredited, but the “market failure” thesis justifies environmental central planning, an endeavor just as prone to ruin. In the words of Competitive Enterprise Institute president Fred L. Smith, Jr., “The disastrous road to serfdom can just as easily be paved with green bricks as with red ones.”⁹ Embracing the “market failure” rationale leads to policy failure.” Find out what the term "market failure" implies and tell me how free market environmentalism goes about rationalizing its "rejection" of this approach.

3. Why do government agencies have such a poor record managing natural resources and public lands?

4. What is the problem with a command and control approache to environmental regulation?  

5. Describe the failure of Soviet (Communist) approaches to regulation.  

6. Describe New Resource Economics.  

7. Briefly describe the theory of free market environmentalism.

8. Describe the debt free market environmentalism owes to Garrett Hardin's tragedy of the commons.  

9. Describe Adam Smith's Laws of the Market.  

10. Adam Smith writes "No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which by far the greater part of the numbers are poor and miserable." He sees free markets as the solution to this problem. In what way?  

11. How did Smith envision that the supply of labor could be influenced by demand?  

12. In Wealth of Nations, Smith observes "As it is this disposition ["the disposition to truck, barter, and exchange] which forms that difference of talents, so remarkable among men of different professions, so it is this same disposition which renders that difference useful." Explain what Adam Smith means with this statement.  

13. What forces serve to create division in labour.  

14. How did Adam Smith apply the term "value" to money and goods?  

15. What is the real measure of this exchangeable value [wherein consists the real price of all commodities].  

16. What are the different parts of which this real price is composed or made up. 

17. What are the different circumstances which sometimes raise some or all of these different parts of price above, and sometimes sink them below, their natural or ordinary rate

To provide a broader perspective on the issues surrounding this case study you may want to visit the following web sites and read the following two articles which are provided for you to read as Acrobat files.

Case Study Discussion Questions:

Students will be expected to answer these questions and post them to drop box 3 as well as to be able to discuss this case in class.

1. What is the political situation relating to this case study?

2. What is the principal environmental impact eluded to in this case study?

3. Who "wins" in the teak trade?

4. Who "loses" in the teak trade?

5. What ethical issues do exporters of teak from this region face?

6. What ethical issues do importers of teak from this region face?

7. Do you see a solution to this problem?