RUSH: This is Rod in Minneapolis. Greetings. Great to have you, sir. Hello.
CALLER: God, it’s great to talk to you. I have never gotten through before. This is amazing to me.
RUSH: Well, congratulations, sir. You sound really happy, and I’m happy that you’re happy.
CALLER: Well, I just want to let you know what an “externality” is. I spent a lot of time learning that in law school when I had a tough professor who tried to explain to us econ but an externality is simply a cost that is not borne by somebody who profits from a venture. So in the global warming community, it would be somebody who doesn’t pay for the cost of cleaning up their CO2 emissions, for example.
RUSH: So Prince Charles, when he talks about “externalities,” is talking about economics, you claim?
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Explain that again. It’s a cost not borne? You mean a cost nobody’s paying for?
CALLER: Right. So if… Well, I don’t want to go the law aspect of it because that’ll take it in a different direction, but the global warming people, they would say that if you are not remediating or somehow fixing the damage to the environment yourself, then you are earning a profit from polluting the environment. There is a cost that is paid for by somebody else that you should be paying for because you are profiting from polluting the environment.
RUSH: I see, and that is what the “externalities” are that have his underwear in a wad?
CALLER: I don’t know about his underwear, but, yeah.
RUSH: Well, it’s a figure of speech. He’s upset about it.
CALLER: (laughing) I hope we’re talking about the prince’s underwear, but that’s okay.
RUSH: Okay. So basically an externality is a side effect or… Well, just somebody does something that they should pay the cost of and they don’t, and there are a whole bunch of those in global warming. There’s a whole lot of “externalities” if you want to define it that way.
RUSH: All right. Well, I appreciate the call. Thank you, Rod, very much. You know, it’s very rare that a caller is able to tell the host something (on this program, anyway) that the host didn’t know. (interruption) No, I did not know that. I had heard of the word “externalities,” but I didn’t know the economic definition of externalities. “Externalities” is a misuse of people who talk about external effects.
I thought that’s what the prince was saying because I think he’s basically a clod. And it turns out he was talking about global warming and economics and people not paying for things, which he knows a lot of about, too, so… (interruption) I was never gonna meet the prince. What do you mean, one day I was gonna meet the prince? (interruption) Oh, one day I am going to?
N, no, no, no. I will not. No, it’ll never happen. He won’t meet me. You think that I’m gonna meet the prince and he’s gonna know that I called him a clod and an idiot? It’s not gonna happen. I mean, he may find out. I don’t think he even knows that there are talk shows on the radio. You think he knows that? (interruption) Well, maybe. Maybe.
I just don’t think Prince Charles has the slightest idea who opponents of global warming are in this country. It’s just so beneath him. What happens on the radio in America is so beneath the day-to-day existence of a monarch, I just can’t fathom that, A, he would know; B, that I would ever encounter either Prince Charles or any member of the royal family.
Anyway, nevertheless, Rod, I appreciate the phone call.
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