In July I was boating with my friends Gene and Carole in New England and the story that Starbucks was stopping using straws was in the news. The New England coast was beautiful and the harbors were the cleanest I have ever seen them and yet we were being asked to stop using straws to help stop an environmental disaster. Something was discordant.

There is a meme going around on Facebook that asks everyone promise to pick up three pieces of plastic every time they go to the beach. In New England I would have failed. There wasn’t enough trash for everyone.

I would like to stipulate that prosperity equals cleanliness. If you doubt me go for a walk in your neighborhood. Walk a mile towards where people with less than you live and then walk a mile towards where people richer than you live. Which one is cleaner, tidier and better maintained? You can bend the curve a little bit by education and massive clean up efforts but the easy way to clean up the environment is to get the people to prosperity. When they have surplus they clean up around themselves and are able to pay for the infrastructure of sewers and rubbish collection.

The fastest way we can stop the trashing of the ocean is by helping the poor in the world develop market economies and become prosperous.