Carbon Tax
I am getting a little tired of hearing people spout off negative unthinking comments about the Carbon Tax.
My point of view is that over the last couple of centuries mankind paid no money, individually, for damage to the environment. My opinion is that the best way to account for any said pollutions which damage the environment is to impose it as additional tax on the polluters. My reasons for this opinion are simplistic, I admit. If the amount is fairly accounted for and applied then the tax can be deemed a cost of doing business. Those businesses which are therefore judged to pollute less pay less of this tax. the cost of their product is less and therefore they sell more. This makes the racket of polluting the environment and leaving it for others to deal with, which all companies can currently do unprofitable.
The "Emission Trading Scheme" was, as the European examples showed, a means to pretend to try and do something while gifting the polluting companies with certificates they could sell to other companies that polluted more. In my opinion this was a poor approach to the climate change / global warming issue. Hey I pollute too as an individual, why not give me some of these emission credits to sell?
A "Carbon Tax" is a simple means for the government to apply a fine on polluting companies. The less they pollute the less tax they pay as a result, a much better system than handing them free credits, every year, to pollute. Yes, it will cost individual tax payers more, we don't actually pay for the damage done to the environment at this moment by our manufactured goods, and we should. Calculating the value that should be applied to foreign imports will be complex, but it will give a value that is more true. Imports from Chinese, Indian and other developing countries will still cost less because their internal labour costs are lower.
The Carbon Tax is the right path to take and it's going to hurt the individual, live with it.
(cross posted to FB)
My point of view is that over the last couple of centuries mankind paid no money, individually, for damage to the environment. My opinion is that the best way to account for any said pollutions which damage the environment is to impose it as additional tax on the polluters. My reasons for this opinion are simplistic, I admit. If the amount is fairly accounted for and applied then the tax can be deemed a cost of doing business. Those businesses which are therefore judged to pollute less pay less of this tax. the cost of their product is less and therefore they sell more. This makes the racket of polluting the environment and leaving it for others to deal with, which all companies can currently do unprofitable.
The "Emission Trading Scheme" was, as the European examples showed, a means to pretend to try and do something while gifting the polluting companies with certificates they could sell to other companies that polluted more. In my opinion this was a poor approach to the climate change / global warming issue. Hey I pollute too as an individual, why not give me some of these emission credits to sell?
A "Carbon Tax" is a simple means for the government to apply a fine on polluting companies. The less they pollute the less tax they pay as a result, a much better system than handing them free credits, every year, to pollute. Yes, it will cost individual tax payers more, we don't actually pay for the damage done to the environment at this moment by our manufactured goods, and we should. Calculating the value that should be applied to foreign imports will be complex, but it will give a value that is more true. Imports from Chinese, Indian and other developing countries will still cost less because their internal labour costs are lower.
The Carbon Tax is the right path to take and it's going to hurt the individual, live with it.
(cross posted to FB)