Quote:
Originally Posted by mick
You see it again and again a firm makes 10 million profit one year and 8 million the next and they say they made a loss excuse me you made 8 million PROFIT just not as much but its still a profit NOT a loss
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Yes, but firms do not normally continue to make a product that is unprofitable. Nor are companies (or individuals, for that matter) going to be satisfied with a 20% cut in income.
Assuming that folks agree that those producing or using a product should cover any unusual cost of disposal (as opposed to making everyone pay, including non-users), there are only two choices left. Either the consumer pays the cost, or the company does. If the company is allowed to pass the cost of disposal along, the price goes up and, presumably, demand for the high-disposal-cost product will drop (a classic microeconomic response).
If the company is not allowed to pass the cost along, they may find it advantageous to no longer offer that product or to modify the product so that it would no longer be costly to dispose of. It would also require a considerable amount of regulatory oversight in order to determine which price increases by the company are justified and which are not. Frankly, better to pass the disposal cost along to the customer and let them decide whether to pay it, to seek an alternative product, or to do without.