Comments on: Happy New Year – A New Political Reality for Carbon Taxes

By: David Ocampo G

David Ocampo G — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:27:10 +0000

Ref #1 (David Collins): Yes, fuel price volatility will admittedly hurt the economy by rendering investment decisions more difficult. But although this is a good argument in favor of the carbon tax, it is only one of many. In the more recently posted letter from Dr Hansen to Dr Holdren, the point is made that "Cap’n Trade" (love that name!) is a reverse-Robin-Hood style pirate who will take from the poor and give to the rich. If I remember right, Prof Gregory Mankiw, a former economic advisor for Pres. W.Bush, also pointed out that Cap’n Trade will facilitate the enrichment of the connected few with access to the apportionment of the allocation goodies. This screws up the efficacy of the system while undermining public faith. Lord knows, our fair country has suffered enough undermining of public faith! Ref. #2: I suggest you read up on what the proposed carbon tax is. Particularly before you damn it. If what you distrust is taxes, then you are against government, whatever its form. In that case, I suggest you frequent Anarchy websites. Otherwise, have some faith in Democracy! Try to make it work! And there is no way it works worth foul flatulence without taxes. Just look at oil-rich countries, whose citizens live largely free of taxes, and if you do, you will see that they are far worse than countries whose citizens support their governments by paying taxes. Otherwise, chill, and pay attention to sports scores.

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:41:49 +0000

There is no such thing as a truly revenue neutral tax of any kind. The money put back into the economy will never equal what was taken out, after the massive bureaucracy created to manage the new taxes swallows its piece. There is an economic cost to every tax and the cost of a carbon tax as describing would be enormous.
Raising or implemented a new gas tax is the surest way for the upcoming administration to derail every other item they have on their agenda. The ecomony is down, unemployment is rising, the last thing the general population will support is anything that increases their cost to drive.

By: David Collins

David Collins — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:38:19 +0000

Thanks be to God that there is serious, sincere support for the Carbon Tax, rather than cynical support for a fuel tax holiday! The rising support from prominent conservative scholars and statesmen demonstrates that Republicans will take the reins from the discredited Banana Republicans. There is one important point made by Sven Gustafson in his essay "Roller Coaster Gas Prices Hurting Automakers, Economy in General" referenced along with this essay: unpredictability in prices does no good whatsoever. What makes the Cap’n Trade method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions unattractive is that it must unavoidably lead to increasing fuel price volatility.