If America were a first-world country, we wouldn't have one of two major political parties in willful ignorance of climate science. It was disgusting earlier this year to see the Republicans using denial of climate change as a litmus test for their presidential candidates.
As far as actually doing something about global warming, a carbon tax by itself wouldn't fly at this point; but I'm intrigued by the idea of substituting a carbon tax for the income tax, to the extent possible. Generally, you tax things you want to discourage, and nobody wants to discourage income. The inequalities in our society might also be addressed by a financial transactions tax and a wealth (rather than income) tax. The former would come down on financial speculators, who don't produce actual goods or services but who simply know how to play the stock-market casino; the latter would help remove the gross inequities of a society that allows a certain class of people (the fabled One Percent) to live on a completely separate plane of existence from the rest of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment