A noxious factory did no harm without neighbors; the law's traditional narratives of responsibility only confused that kernel of reciprocity. If it cost the polluters more in total to abate a nuisance than it would have cost society to buy out the objecting neighbors so that they could move elsewhere, then the socially efficient answer was that the neighbors should leave and the stink should stay, just as they would if the parties had been left to themselves to bargain their way to an economically optimal resolution.
