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Consumption wont decrease unless your goal is to just make everyone poor. Employers would simply double their work force and employees would have two jobs. Com

Consumption wont decrease unless your goal is to just make everyone poor. Employers would simply double their work force and employees would have two jobs. Companies are always going to scale to meet market demands so if the goal is to benefit the environment this wont work. Deficits however are creating consumption despite a lack of market demand. That's why balancing the budget is so beneficial.

vkou 9y ago
My goal is to reduce economic output. Of course that will make everyone poorer. Our climate can't support its entire population living at the level of wealth currently enjoyed by first world countries. It can't even support the population of first world countries living at the level of wealth currently enjoyed by first world countries. Electric sedans and solar panels are fine and all, but the vast majority of the crap we buy comes here on ship, and is hauled across the continent on gasoline trucks. We can either make everyone poorer by taxing goods that require transportation (Which is nearly all of them), or by forcing everyone to do less work. There is no other solution. Stopping deficit spending will slow down economic growth by single percentage points. It will also make everyone poorer - but by a much smaller margin. It also won't be enough. We are currently in a situation where we can't just be happy with stopping the rate of emission growth - if we want to avoid catastrophic warming, we have to drastically reduce carbon emissions. Not fifty years from now, not thirty years from now, but within the next decade. [1] We can reduce our GDP, or the climate can reduce it for us. [1] http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/WRI13-IPCCinfographic-FINAL_web.png http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/WRI13-IPCCinfographic...
- sintaxi 9y ago
  This is far to authoritarian for my taste.

vkou 9y ago

My goal is to reduce economic output. Of course that will make everyone poorer. Our climate can't support its entire population living at the level of wealth currently enjoyed by first world countries. It can't even support the population of first world countries living at the level of wealth currently enjoyed by first world countries. Electric sedans and solar panels are fine and all, but the vast majority of the crap we buy comes here on ship, and is hauled across the continent on gasoline trucks. We can either make everyone poorer by taxing goods that require transportation (Which is nearly all of them), or by forcing everyone to do less work. There is no other solution. Stopping deficit spending will slow down economic growth by single percentage points. It will also make everyone poorer - but by a much smaller margin. It also won't be enough. We are currently in a situation where we can't just be happy with stopping the rate of emission growth - if we want to avoid catastrophic warming, we have to drastically reduce carbon emissions. Not fifty years from now, not thirty years from now, but within the next decade. [1] We can reduce our GDP, or the climate can reduce it for us. [1] http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/WRI13-IPCCinfographic-FINAL_web.png http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/WRI13-IPCCinfographic...

sintaxi 9y ago
This is far to authoritarian for my taste.