Well...you would wouldn't you, I do...

...a confession. A major proportion of my income, all my professional life, has come from fellow taxpayers. I chose a profession that has been the recipient of NZ's ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) funding. Periodically, when the government of the day tightens its purse-strings, the media publish details of "unsustainable" funding, and we revert to part charging our patients. With publicity, come accusations that we as a profession are "ripping the system off." To those taunts, I have always replied that we are simply responding to the market; no rip off, just true market forces at work. Which reminds me...my favourite P.J. O'Rourke quote: "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."
The bete noire of the green/left, Bjorn Lomborg, makes a similar observation with regard to a forthcoming conference entitled World Business Summit on Climate Change. Lomborg observes companies and individuals attending are responding to the global warming hysteria and amplifying the hysteria to increase their own profits. Market forces at work here too...but with a not so subtle difference, in this case the market is a bubble, created by pretence and enriching the pretenders...
...The opening keynote address is to be delivered by Al Gore, who actually represents all three groups: He is a politician, a campaigner and the chair of a green private-equity firm invested in products that a climate-scared world would buy.
Naturally, many CEOs are genuinely concerned about global warming. But many of the most vocal stand to profit from carbon regulations. The term used by economists for their behavior is "rent-seeking."
The world's largest wind-turbine manufacturer, Copenhagen Climate Council member Vestas, urges governments to invest heavily in the wind market. It sponsors CNN's "Climate in Peril" segment, increasing support for policies that would increase Vestas's earnings. A fellow council member, Mr. Gore's green investment firm Generation Investment Management, warns of a significant risk to the U.S. economy unless a price is quickly placed on carbon...
Lawyers, always quick to spot fellow travellers, might quite rightly describe this collusion as a "rort." Interested observers like myself are more likely to use the F word...more from Bjorn Lomborg in The Wall Street Journal here...
Footnote (excuse the pun)...I happen to know the planet is cooling. Last night I awoke to find 2 feet of ice in my bed. Both of them belonged to my wife...