3 ms·
Tax the fucking carbon
by mhh__ 4y ago
Tax the fucking carbon
- xupybd 4y agoTo what end? Is taxing carbon going to avoid any climate problems, or is it just going to move money around and do little to change the amount of carbon emitted. I suspect the latter. We need to think about solutions from end to end not just ones that appear to punish the parties that we think need punishing.
- mhh__ 4y agoTaxing carbon is the only way the government can be reasonably confident of effecting any change while minimizing economic disruption. Markets work, use them.
- wonnage 4y agoDirectly regulating the amount of pollution emitted is effective too, look at how California's auto emissions laws have become a de-facto standard. The US is the #1 source of demand in the world, entire economies (e.g China's) have been built around suppressing domestic demand in favor of making more money exporting to the US. If we change our regulations, the rest of the world will follow.
- tomrod 4y ago> Is taxing carbon going to avoid any climate problems Yes, and give a financial base to begin remediation. Your suspicions are unfounded here, given we already have a proven model pricing pollutants: https://www.nber.org/digest/feb16/cap-and-trade-sulfur-dioxide-allowances-market-experiment https://www.nber.org/digest/feb16/cap-and-trade-sulfur-dioxi... A tax is just more direct, even when subject to political cowardice.
- trothamel 4y agoThat's a very good way to get unelected.
- Findecanor 4y agoI believe the best type of carbon tax would be an import tax on goods from countries that have more lax environmental legislation. Not only would that attack the problem of "embodied emissions", but if you spin it right it could be seen as protecting domestic industry.
- quickthrower2 4y agoHow about "Negative levy! X% of you income tax now paid by polluting corporations"