Discuss how the market failed to reach efficient outcomes in the podcast examples

In the first video, the zinc plant did not account for external costs incurred by emitting lethal levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and dust particles into the air. This led to the zinc plant not performing efficiently. I also believe the abatement costs, in order to emit less pollution, were not thought about when the plant was first starting. In other words, the zinc plant only thought about their private costs. Once the plant was operating, at what the plant staff believed to be an efficient level, they probably thought their abatement costs far exceeded the marginal damage.  At this point the damage was irreversible. In this instance, in the eyes of the zinc plant staff, it could make sense for the zinc plant to continue to emit pollution at a high level because the abatement costs may be much greater than the damage costs and the effects of the already emitted pollutants were irreversible.

The two sources of pollution in these videos differ a great deal. In the first video, the source of pollution is a known culprit: the zinc plant. In the second video, the source of pollution is the people along the Cuyahoga River. Neither one is at an optimal pollution level. Today, the EPA distributes NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permits, which allows companies to discharge at a safe level. Who knows how many people or businesses pre-FWPCA (Federal Water Pollution Control Act) dumped oil or hazmat in the Cuyahoga River? Although, individuals should not have been dumping their garbage or letting phosphorus run off go into the water because of the Refuse Act of 1899. The decision by Carl Stokes to put a bill in place to tax the people along the shore, I believe, paved the way for the OSLTF (Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund), which is now being used to clean up oil discharges all over the United States and notorious for being used during the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

 Both examples demonstrated a need to create more intense regulations. People where dying nearby the zinc plant and the Cuyahoga River was uninhabitable for fish. If this had continued , the results could have been drastically different.  We may no longer be able to drink water from any of the Great Lakes if stricter regulations like FWPCA (Federal Water Pollution Control Act) and CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response Liability Act) had not emerged. Through the means of enforcing laws and creating penalties for those companies that pollute, abatement costs can be less than marginal damage costs, resulting in companies polluting less.