The craze over Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth has died down a bit, particularly after a British court found it so full of scientific errors that it permitted its showing in schools only when accompanied by a list of corrections. But don’t look for Greens to stop targeting captive audiences of children for their propaganda.
The latest craze is for The Story of Stuff, a 20-minute video that gives children its producer’s perspective on the impact of making and marketing and using all the “stuff” Americans consume.
It’s not a bad idea in principle. But in this case, principle is lacking. The video presents only the down side of the “stuff.” When it puts a skull-and-crossbones graphic beside factory smoke, does it also tell about all the benefits of what the factory produces? No.
And that’s the rub. Just as surely as industries should take responsibility for what economists call their “externalities”–costs of production that aren’t borne by the producers unless “internalized” by some regulatory mechanism–so also critics of industries, when counting the cost of the externalities, should count the benefits of the activities that produced them.
A chemical or drug factory produces pollution. It also produces, e.g., fertilizer or pesticide or herbicide that enhances crop yields and so helps make food more affordable, or medicine that heals diseases and saves lives.
If you’re going to report the negative value of the pollution, it’s only fair and balanced to report the value of the products made. That’s what The Story of Stuff doesn’t do, and that’s why it’s not education, it’s brainwashing.
