71–80 of 150 posts
If we pay $10, what percentage actually goes to fighting climate change, and what percentage goes to pensions and interest payments on debt.
We had our sales tax raised "for the children" to make our schools better. Money goes into the general fund.
I'm not sure the solution, but I have doubts the US government can handle money.
In Switzerland there was a vote 2 weeks ago about whether we want to support a law to reduce CO2 output by our population. The law was very clear how the money would be spent: improve heating, direct pay to poor citizens, and many others. Cost: - 50 cents per gallon of gas (our gas is about 6$ per gallon) - 20$ to 100$ for a plane ticket The law was refused by 51% of Swiss citizen. What really killed me was that the…
The young and poor can't afford to increase their cost of living even further. We're already burdened with debt, a shitty job market, unable to afford housing, and are having trouble even finding love and having children. I don't know how much more people expect us to sacrifice. Newsflash, this generation has fucking nothing left to give.
Of course if you frame it like that they don't want to pay. Americans want billionaires to pay for climate programs since many made a fortune not caring about climate, kept getting richer during a global pandemic, and show no interest in addressing the grotesque wealth inequality in America.
What we need is a voluntary tax to pay for climate change. You want it, sign up for the 10% increase in taxes, it will just be linked to your name and whenever there is a tax, you simply pay an additional 10% more that will all go to fighting climate change. Everything else is really about authoritarianism and subjugation of people one wants to dominate and punish. We could have had people paying 10% voluntary climate change tax for 30+ years now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does direct pay to poor citizens have to do with climate change? I've always been told that the best way to do a pigovian tax is to make it revenue neutral. You collect the sin tax, but then your redistribute it based on the average level of tax collected. So someone who uses exactly the average amount of carbon sees no change in buying power. Someone who uses less than average actually sees an increase in buyin…
Evenly distributing the revenue assumes the effect of the negative externality (climate change) is evenly distributed. But climate change tends to harm poorer people more than richer people, so it makes sense to distribute more revenue to them.
You have a popular bill and you shove something politically unpopular in it, in hopes it will pass anyway.
In Switzerland there was a vote 2 weeks ago about whether we want to support a law to reduce CO2 output by our population. The law was very clear how the money would be spent: improve heating, direct pay to poor citizens, and many others. Cost: - 50 cents per gallon of gas (our gas is about 6$ per gallon) - 20$ to 100$ for a plane ticket The law was refused by 51% of Swiss citizen. What really killed me was that the…
The young and poor can't afford to increase their cost of living even further. We're already burdened with debt, a shitty job market, unable to afford housing, and are having trouble even finding love and having children. I don't know how much more people expect us to sacrifice. Newsflash, this generation has fucking nothing left to give.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Evenly distributing the revenue assumes the effect of the negative externality (climate change) is evenly distributed. But climate change tends to harm poorer people more than richer people, so it makes sense to distribute more revenue to them.
So its not about preventing climate change, just mitigating its effects.
The purpose of such a tax would be to prevent climate change by discouraging "needless" activities. Want to take your 10th vacation this year by flying 500 miles? Maybe if the ticket was $20 more expensive that prevents some people, at the margin. If such a tax is gradually increased each year and alternatives get cheaper each year (direct carbon capture, electric cars, renewable energy), then eventually a society will be carbon-sustainable with much less harm to the people at the bottom of the ladder.
The problem with this post is that it cites a survey of how much Americans are willing to pay to "stop climate change." According to the article 57% are willing to pay $1 a month to "stop climate change" and 23% would pay $40 a month. As an American, in a well paying IT job, I'd pay $100 IF IT WOULD STOP CLIMATE CHANGE. However, I don't believe the $1, or $40, or $100 is going to do anything. It's far more complex th…
I think its a reasonable question and in line with what practical measures governments are making today to raise money to combat the issue. Maybe you don't believe in the political process to fix handle this issue, but there really isn't another option. And if you really think there's a good chance that the world will end in the next 100 years, why wouldn't you be willing to throw quite literally a few dollars at it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. Carbon tax 2. Cap and trade The problem is NOT that there have been no good proposed policy solutions. The problem is that voters don't want them. This is why I'm pessimistic on the environment.
You can trivially set up a carbon tax that a majority of voters would vote for, simply give the money that you taxed back out equally among the population as a form of UBI. We don't see these proposals because they are not proposals that the wealthy and powerful would benefit from.
In Switzerland there was a vote 2 weeks ago about whether we want to support a law to reduce CO2 output by our population. The law was very clear how the money would be spent: improve heating, direct pay to poor citizens, and many others. Cost: - 50 cents per gallon of gas (our gas is about 6$ per gallon) - 20$ to 100$ for a plane ticket The law was refused by 51% of Swiss citizen. What really killed me was that the…
The young and poor can't afford to increase their cost of living even further. We're already burdened with debt, a shitty job market, unable to afford housing, and are having trouble even finding love and having children. I don't know how much more people expect us to sacrifice. Newsflash, this generation has fucking nothing left to give.