TANSTAAFL - PDF

When TANSTAAFL (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch) was published in 1971, it was one of the first surveys of environmental policy to be written from a libertarian perspective. It sold many thousands of copies, and, over time, achieved the status of a classic.

40 years later, this new edition includes the full original text, long out of print, along with a new introduction and commentaries by the author, Edwin G. Dolan, covering topics ranging from climate change, to globalization, to ecosocialism. The new material examines both successes and failures of environmental policy over the past four decades, and explains why it is so hard to get policies right. The central theme of the book remains the TANSTAAFL principle: The polluter must pay. Market mechanisms, prices, and protection of property offer a surer path to a cleaner and more sustainable future than either bureaucratic controls or moral suasion unsupported by economic incentives.