From an economic standpoint, a clean environment is just something else to be purchased, and of course rich people will buy more of it. It's all well and good to say it's worth $100 a year to me for the local river to be clean enough to swim in - the 3rd world peasant who can't quite afford penicillin for his kids will figure differently, and he'll be right.

Assuming he actually gets that $100, that is...