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France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

reuters.com

311–320 of 578 posts

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#311

> Want to do something about climate change? Start with yourself I really dislike this line of thinking. I don’t manufacture millions of tons of concrete or millions of single-use plastic shampoo bottles. Our current path is irreversible if drastic shifts in disposable consumerism don’t occur soon.

There's two things to this. Yes, we shouldn't be buying shampoo in the disposable plastic containers - but corporations shouldn't be able to manufacture them in the first place.

So .. what should we be buying shampoo in? Not glass in the shower? Non-recyclable tetra pack?

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The train infrastructure is not perfect, the biggest issue being travels not going to/from Paris: the lines aren't as good and there aren't a lot of high-speed lines.

And they’re expensive compared to flying the equivalent route/distance.

45 euro for 500 km in 2 hours, no security. I don't think flights are any cheaper; certainly not if you factor in your time.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#313
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible" ~ Stanisław Jerzy Lec Sure, you won't be able to make a measurable impact by yourself. However your mindset quickly leads to a tragedy of the commons type response that leaves us all in trouble. We should all take a more proactive approach to this in both our private life and in our professional work.

tragedy of the commons is solved by regulation, not by hoping that individuals or corporations will discipline themselves

Any regulation on corporate behavior is ultimately just a proxy for regulation on individuals (because it's often easier to regulate corporations, as they tend to be more accountable). Corporations will discipline themselves if the demand for their product goes away.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#314

> Want to do something about climate change? Start with yourself I really dislike this line of thinking. I don’t manufacture millions of tons of concrete or millions of single-use plastic shampoo bottles. Our current path is irreversible if drastic shifts in disposable consumerism don’t occur soon.

Exactly.

I've done no research on the company but I assume Graham is profiting off of its success. Since only collective action will solve climate change's effects on the middle and lower classes this is just cynical profiteering off of global disasters.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#315

About time. Traveling is killing the planet. One of major causes of climate change. We need to take it seriously. I'm glad France is willing to take a bold and brave step to support the environment.

Traveling is a part of why the world is more integrated and, likely, less violent than it used to be.

People flying around is not just good for businesses and economies, people visiting other places is cultural exchange. Do you really want people to be more culturally isolated?

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a constant war of words here: are individuals responsible for cleaning up their footprint, or are corporations responsible for their dirty practices, or are governments responsible for putting policies to guide the economy? The answer is: we need all three. We will not tackle climate change without strong change on the personal, corporate, and governmental levels.

If you could only pick two out of those three, which would you choose?

If governments put a price on carbon, individuals and corporations will do their parts as a result.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you could only pick two out of those three, which would you choose?

individuals and government. Corporations don't exist in a vacuum.

Corporations dictate consumer behavior in the ways that matter here. Do you think individuals agitated for the rise of throw-away goods during the rise of mass produced plastics in the 60s? This was the simply the most companies could do in the production process to maximize profit in a way that wouldn't stop customers from buying.

Also, nothing will change until people stop imagining that corporations and government are foreign bodies comprised of something other than their neighbors and themselves.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you could only pick two out of those three, which would you choose?

individuals and government. Corporations don't exist in a vacuum.

It is weird how people pretend that corporations and governments are some type of weird entities with minds of their own instead of just a group of individuals. Individuals changing priorities will directly result in corporations and governments changing priorities.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope they wouldn't use those agressive algorithm for dynamic pricing. This is a public service, have a static pricing! This turns the train into a luxury, at times almost three times as expensive as air travel.

static pricing leads to sold out seats and poor planning by customers. It negates the ability to add capacity in advance for busy times and leads to poor efficiency overall (even completely ignoring the inconvenience of being stranded to passengers).

True, my point of view might not take everything into account, but for trains, the ability to add capacity is limited, mostly constrained by tracks leased time.

For the train I take to go back home, the price varies between 35€ and 220€. This is excessive! And not much better than sold-out seats..

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#320
post #167

Finally. It's really frustrating to see how heavily subsidized airlines, plane fuel and airports are and how big of a tax breaks they get when they come to a city. At the same time people are shamed for buying salad in a plastic bag when the big lever is somewhere completely different. Had the same thought yesterday when I saw: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1148317244893597696

>Finally. It's really frustrating to see how heavily subsidized airlines, plane fuel and airports are and how big of a tax breaks they get when they come to a city. I suppose the Airlines will just pass along any new taxes to the traveling consumer. I was always under the impression that airports in France were economic drivers of prosperity considering tourism makes up about 77 billion euro of economic impact to the…

> I suppose the Airlines will just pass along any new taxes to the traveling consumer.

Well, yeah, but what is the problem with that? The price increase thus decreasing the demand of flights, achieving the goal.

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