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no, but if governments subsidize transitions to new technologies, then they are responsible for all of the effects of those transitions. what would you do if y
by a-dub 5y ago
no, but if governments subsidize transitions to new technologies, then they are responsible for all of the effects of those transitions.
what would you do if your government provided tax incentives for your employer to hire your job out to another country and you lost your job (and most other jobs like it?). you'd probably vote for literally anyone who would reverse that.
- ClumsyPilot 5y agoI agree there should be a plan, but currently government subsidies the oil industry more than they subsidise anything green.
- rurp 5y agoTrue, but how much of the value of those subsidies goes to the workers who will lose their jobs in a transition? I don't know, but I suspect most of that value is captured by people far enough up the corporate ladder that they will be doing just fine regardless of what happens.
- DeRock 5y agoYou could argue that both direct oil subsidies and indirect "lack of carbon tax" subsidies also exist and contribute to reduced demand for EVs. Is that fair to EV manufacturers and their employees?
- a-dub 5y agoi'm less interested in the objective idea of fairness and more interested in the practical realities of what it would take to successfully transition to electric vehicles. if there's a massive political upheaval halfway through that results in political and economic instability (which of course would at a minimum jeopardize the transition itself), then that wouldn't be what i would call a successful transition. since governments are already getting involved by subsidizing (and therefore are engineering a transition) i argue that they need to take a holistic approach and also engineer a path forward for those who will lose livelihoods and businesses as a result of those subsidies.