Taxing Pollution for True Market Costs

Your morning coffee is destroying the planet and nobody's paying for it. This is what economists

call a negative externality. When a factory pollutes while making your coffee,

society pays the cost but the price tag doesn't reflect it. The market produces

way too much because pollution is free for the company. The fix? Tax them exactly

what the pollution costs society. Suddenly prices reflect the true damage and production

drops to the socially optimal level. It's called a Pigouvian tax and it's literally economics forcing

companies to pay for the mess they make. The invisible hand needs a little push

sometimes to actually work for everyone.