The River Dispute

Three villages shared a river. Upstream, midstream, downstream. The upstream village could pollute freely. The downstream village suffered but had no leverage.

A regional governor changed the rule: every village paid a tax based on water quality at the point below them. Upstream’s tax was measured midstream. Midstream’s tax was measured downstream.

Overnight, upstream stopped dumping waste — not from morality, but from cost. The governor hadn’t appealed to their conscience. He’d made the cost of pollution land on the one who caused it.

The river cleaned itself, because the rules now made cleanliness profitable.