Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The big issue I think with the tax is that its ultimately paid for by consumers and not capital, as a result behavior won't shift, people will just get poorer in need of more subsidy and wealth will be more concentrated. Rather than a carbon tax, we should tax wealth for carbon used to generate such wealth in the American economic system. We could do this by taxing the holdings directly, or having a progressive tax rate that is effectively zero for the sort of purchases a middle class individual will make in their life, and quite steep for the sort of purchases that are more common among the elite with substantially larger carbon footprints.


In theory a carbon tax incentivises low carbon solutions. In theory the market is frictionless and transparent.


Theory will only take you so far




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: