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> We had good free-market solutions that we didn't use either, so I'm not totally sure that free-market thinking is the root cause, unless you're referring to p
by kergonath 4y ago
> We had good free-market solutions that we didn't use either, so I'm not totally sure that free-market thinking is the root cause, unless you're referring to people using 'free-market' as an excuse to do things that help the rich and the powerful, while ignoring 'free-market' things that would help other groups, which is often the case.
That’s right, we could have done more even within a somewhat free-market framework. Though a lot of people would argue that the moment the government has to step in with incentives and taxes it ceases to be free; this was an argument that was used against cap and trade, for example (though even cap and trade is a terrible solution anyway). These solutions would not really help with large infrastructure projects or the lack of will to address dependence to Russian gas, for example.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoCap and trade is a fine solution. It's basically equivalent to carbon pricing. You can mess up carbon taxes by setting the wrong price, not increasing it predictably over time or exempting certain sectors, mismeasuring or whatever. That's basically the same things you can mess up with Cap and Trade. Cross border effects have impacts too, but there's no fundamental reason why carbon pricing or cap and trade wouldn't be a good solution to weaning Germany off Russian gas.