The Economic Way of Thinking 13th Edition by David Prychitko, Peter Boettke, Paul Heyne

Exercise 7

According to a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, eight out of ten Americans say that they are "environmentalists." Do their buying and consumption practices support that claim?
(a) Sixty-seven percent of those polled said they would be willing to pay 15 to 20 cents a gallon more for gasoline that causes much less pollution than the current blends. One major refiner responded that it had developed such a blend, but it wasn't selling. Would you say that members of the 67 percent who do not purchase a less polluting blend when it becomes available are not sincere in claiming to be environmentalists?
(b) When asked whether they would favor a 25-cent addition to the gasoline tax to encourage less driving and more conservation, 69 percent of those polled opposed the tax and only 27 percent supported it. Can you reconcile this position with the claim of two-thirds of those polled that they are environmentalists?
(c) Eighty-five percent of those polled wanted the government to require cars to be more fuel efficient and less polluting even if that made them more expensive, although only 51 percent were willing to see cars made "smaller and less safe" in order to protect the environment. Can you provide a plausible explanation for these combinations of attitudes?