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There's a simple reason for carbon taxes: it's a public goods problem. Changing my own lifestyle will have significant costs, of some sort, and will have no no
by DennisP 7y ago
There's a simple reason for carbon taxes: it's a public goods problem.
Changing my own lifestyle will have significant costs, of some sort, and will have no noticeable impact on the climate. There's only a real impact if lots of other people do it too. But if they do, I can get the same benefit by freeloading on them and keeping my life unchanged. Either way, I'm better off not changing.
Nevertheless, I prefer a good climate to an unchanged lifestyle. It's just that if it's an individual decision for each of us, we're all better off as freeloaders.
A carbon tax removes the freeloader option.
- Discombulator 7y agoFully agree. Climate change cannot be tackled by individual action, just like hunger or poverty cannot. I have by now the suspicion that anyone suggesting so while arguing that no regulation should be put in place is either naive or in bad faith.
- sn9 7y agoAnd people are forgetting that by making fossil-fuel based travel more expensive, a carbon tax will also spur more innovation and research into carbon neutral alternatives. It's not a permanent reduction in luxuries like travel.