[Terrapreta] Carbon tax

[Jim Joyner]

Greg and April wrote:
>> Yes, this will drive up the price of petro products, and only the most
>> valuable of those products will continue to be used. But, what is so
>> equitable about doing this (the way it was done for centuries in equity)
>> is that everyone is then paying (not subsidizing) the real cost of what
>> they are using, i.e., they are paying the cost to keep environment they
>> way it was. And, we won't be a the mercy of some beaucrat or regulatory
>> agency that is in businesses back pocket (I think they call them
>> "captured agencies -- like the FDA, FTC, SEC . . .)
>
> Did you ever consider that each time the cost of petro products go up, 
> there is a cascade effect that:
Greg,

Sure, but these costs already exist. It's just instead of you the SUV 
driver paying for them, we hand the cost to the environment. Sometimes 
it hard to calculate what these costs are monetarily but they are still 
there. In fact, the over all cost of getting the original vendor 
absorbing them is probably much less because it comes out of their 
pockets or reduces their markets, so they have every incentive to do 
this as efficiently as possible. I mean, if someones livelihood or 
health (costs) is being destroyed half way round the world instead of 
the company paying the costs for their own products, what do they care?
> Where does the cycle stop?
I think that is the wrong question. What we want is system that get the 
best use out of any resource. The free market is the best at doing that. 
The problem is, companies get free rides either as legal monopolies or 
immunity from the protection the gov't should provide. That is the 
problem now: companies don't pay the real cost of producing their products.
> Just keep those things in mind, and figure out how to deal with them, 
> when thinking about taxing petro products.
I'm NOT talking about taxing anyone. I'm talking about doing what equity 
in law should do in the first place. If a company affects my property or 
space, they should make it right. If they don't, I (or the unaware, 
innocent bystander) pay the cost. I would like to see back door 
subsidies cease.

On the other hand, any form of tax credit system WILL be taxing, will be 
manipulating/distorting the market, but in a way the taxers and 
manipulators won't get the blame. It's the way gov't works.

Jim