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It's not necessary to exclude the possibility of a Carbon tax, but it's certainly not the only, or most likely to be tenable, solution. Gates' own Creative Capi

It's not necessary to exclude the possibility of a Carbon tax, but it's certainly not the only, or most likely to be tenable, solution. Gates' own Creative Capitalism probably offers a better path towards zero emissions.

ZeroGravitas 11y ago
Gates, and basically all economists, argument is that without correctly pricing externalities, capitalism (creative or otherwise) not only doesn't help, it actively makes things worse, as people can make fortunes by digging up and burning the fossil fuels that will wreck the global climate. Those incentives need to be realigned, and almost certainly will at some point, though probably much later than someone who believes in the power of market forces would like. The initial work will mostly be done via central planning and government regulation. It's even possible, like the VW scandal has reverberations in consumer confidence in their brand, that global warming has the potential to discredit capitalism in the eyes of the public, if a carbon tax doesn't get introduced soon enough to see capitalism as part of the solution and not just the problem.
- petergatsby 11y ago
  I think you're right; market forces, left alone, are unlikely to realign incentives within a desirable time-frame. This seems to explain Gates' stance. However, the creative capitalist would argue that rather than penalizing fossil fuel companies (via Carbon tax), governments would do better to reward innovators via more 'green tax credits' and like financial incentives. You get the same* overall impact, just with less political push-back and more R&D, driven BY capitalism. And by the way, Gates invented "Creative Capitalism" (https://www.fpsct.org/uploaded/faculty/johnsonc/U_S_History/Unit_5/Gospel_and_Gates.pdf https://www.fpsct.org/uploaded/faculty/johnsonc/U_S_History/...).

3 ms·

It's not necessary to exclude the possibility of a Carbon tax, but it's certainly not the only, or most likely to be tenable, solution. Gates' own Creative Capi

by petergatsby 11y ago

ZeroGravitas 11y ago
Gates, and basically all economists, argument is that without correctly pricing externalities, capitalism (creative or otherwise) not only doesn't help, it actively makes things worse, as people can make fortunes by digging up and burning the fossil fuels that will wreck the global climate. Those incentives need to be realigned, and almost certainly will at some point, though probably much later than someone who believes in the power of market forces would like. The initial work will mostly be done via central planning and government regulation. It's even possible, like the VW scandal has reverberations in consumer confidence in their brand, that global warming has the potential to discredit capitalism in the eyes of the public, if a carbon tax doesn't get introduced soon enough to see capitalism as part of the solution and not just the problem.
- petergatsby 11y ago
  I think you're right; market forces, left alone, are unlikely to realign incentives within a desirable time-frame. This seems to explain Gates' stance. However, the creative capitalist would argue that rather than penalizing fossil fuel companies (via Carbon tax), governments would do better to reward innovators via more 'green tax credits' and like financial incentives. You get the same* overall impact, just with less political push-back and more R&D, driven BY capitalism. And by the way, Gates invented "Creative Capitalism" (https://www.fpsct.org/uploaded/faculty/johnsonc/U_S_History/Unit_5/Gospel_and_Gates.pdf https://www.fpsct.org/uploaded/faculty/johnsonc/U_S_History/...).