Climate Change Taxes

well is it a government issue or an individual issue?

My wife and I:

—Own one car between the two of us, which we both use to carpool the 5-minute commute back and forth to work
—Don’t each much red meat
—Don’t have kids
—As for me: I’m also on the board of my local botanical garden which promotes sustainability efforts in the community and among local businesses.

No, we do not walk everywhere and subsist on water alone, but in the grand scheme of things we are not big greenhouse gas emitters.

Could we do better? Sure. Everyone could do better.

But I feel comfortable enough in what I do to criticize private jet-flying billionaires, fossil fuel companies, and politicians who refuse to take action.

But regardless, hypocrisy is not a great way of looking at this issue, because the problem is so vast that individual efforts alone will never solve this problem.

You and your sock puppet wife:

-- 'Work' TWENTY hours a day memeing.
-- Not much red meat wha? Is that like being "sorta pregnant"?
-- You're still breathing, ain'tcha?
-- Board of wha? How long since I told you what I do as a hobby (wildlife gardening) did it take you to recall that?
What botanical garden? What sustainibility do you promote when the ONLY thing you promote (other that Kylie and yourself) is this sill do-nothing tax?

No, fella, pointing out your hypocrisy is fine.

I remember that and I’m glad to hear you garden! Did I ever say otherwise?

Since you live in New York (lowest carbon emissions per capita in the U.S.), it’s entirely possible that you emit less carbon than me. Good for you! But nobody really knows until we can compare our carbon tax bills. And I guarantee two folks on a meme site arguing over who’s the bigger climate hypocrite is going to change precisely nothing

Indeed, I breathe, air and if that makes me a hypocrite then I am guilty as charged.

But: I find it hard to believe the only good climate activist is a dead climate activist.

Contrary to what many on this site believe, dead people cannot vote Democrat, or indeed vote for anyone at all

Really?

Then please explain how - with NONE of the activity of today - temperatures were WARMER in the past.

You know - when taxes didn't exist to "cure" the problem.

Science - how does it work again?

The meme itself — bringing the coronavirus into this discussion — is a total red herring

Governments are capable of succeeding at some things and failing at others. Examples of American successes in government: Destroying the Confederacy, beating the Nazis, putting a man on the moon

These efforts required both taxation and collective, federally-coordinated action

And you bet the CDC and other agencies and governments around the world are currently hard at work trying to counter the coronavirus. Will these efforts succeed or fail? We can’t say yet, but it’s better to try

But anyway: a carbon tax primarily works not through generating revenue, but instead by harnessing the power of market forces, so this premise is incorrect too

This tax will suck the CO2 out of the sky, yup.

Pointing out (alleged) logical fallacies accomplishes nothing

Instead, you should work towards presenting an argument of your own.

(Bonus: The OP meme itself commits the same logical fallacy you accuse me of. Yet you have nothing to say about it — and instead, when I address that comparison involving the coronavirus on its own terms, you accuse *me* of bringing in the false equivalencies!)

The Webster definition I just posted shows that equivalency = equivalence

See: “1: Equivalence”

Therefore equivalencies = equivalences

All this meaningless exchange really demonstrates is: (1) Your own sloppiness; (2) Your ineffective zeal to prove me wrong about something

Not truly important but Webster says both are correct

Okay I am listening, what will the greenhouse tax accomplish? what is that tax money going to be spent on that will contribute in resolving the problem you are addressing?

The proceeds can be spent on anything, honestly

Want that border wall? You got it!

It works by giving people and businesses a direct financial incentive to reduce their environmental impact

You have any idea how much carbon based fuel goes into producing steel and concrete? Not to mention construction. Oh, and plus the exhaust fumes?

What next, have cheaters pay a penance that can be used for buying their dates dinner?

Seriously, how much to you get payed to be a shill?

Construction is a dirty undertaking

These are facts

You’ve convinced me! Perhaps I should not be this carelessly generous to the right-wing on this subject

It us a hoax to make a rich politician richer. Even when I asked you my first question you jumped over hoops to give me the most half ass answer I have ever seen, and that is because even you have doubts about it. Giving money to government so that they do for you what you are supposed to be doing is NEVER a good answer because someone is going to keep that money and do nothing to solve that issue. You just confessed that you dont know who that money is going to go to or what it will be used for. You need to ask yourself those questions so that you can answer them when you are going to present your case. In here you have no case, you are presenting information about a subject you have no knowledge about. I know about it, I was testing you and you epic failed answering a very simple question. Now I am taking responsibility, and this is how:
1) I compost organic waste with red earth worms
2) I plant fruit trees all around my house and share freely with the wild life
3) I recycle most of my non organic waste very intentionally
4) at my household no one smokes, and use electric stove

At an individual level do you do any of that?

Oh and they want your money, they are going to fill your head with fake information and do all kind of dishonest things to get that money. Dont fall for it.

Your response still does not answer what my money is going to be used for. Where is it going to go? The only answer you gave me was that my money was going to be taken away from my paycheck in hopes that it motivates the usage of cleaner energy. What clean energy? This article is vague and does not provide an answer to where my money is going to go and how it will be used. See I am expecting answers like reforesting, farming of earth worms for richer soils, new technology to fix the problem. But no, the best you could come up with was a vague article stating that we are going to take your money so that you can feel the pain and use cleaner energy that is not even specified. It sounds like a hoax to take my money away and give it to some rich politician. Am I right?

The article does a good job explaining the basic premise of a carbon tax.

As for what exactly the money will be spent on — well, that’s a decision that will have to be made by the government, just as it does with all tax revenue.

I would hazard a guess that it is likely that any government bold enough to implement a carbon tax would also be re-investing at least some of the proceeds of said carbon tax into other green projects.

But in theory, they could allocate all the funds to something boring like debt repayment or the social security/Medicare fund. Or something exciting like sending a man to Mars. Or something right-wing like a border wall, for example if they needed Republican votes to get it through Congress.

Andrew Yang (who just dropped out) had a carbon tax in his platform that he intended to use to partially fund UBI.

Other Democratic candidates have put out statements on carbon pricing, but the truth is no one knows until the rubber hits the road in Congress. It’s a fact of life that presidential candidates cannot deliver on all their promises all the time — see: Trump and the still-unbuilt border wall.

I am sorry KylieFan_89, the answer you gave me is very vague and out of context. We are not discussing border wall. I will ask again in a more simple way in hopes to obtain from you and educated answer that is contextual, debatable and considerable. Here it goes: within the context of man made CO2 emmissions how is what you suggested "greenhouse tax" going to solve this issue of man made C02 emmissions? I assume I will be getting to get taxed for it, so how is my taxed money going to be used to solve the issue? Please be specific.

Sorry if my initial response was too short and vague. See:

https://www.carbontax.org/whats-a-carbon-tax/

And in case folks here aren't keen on following links, here's a brief synopsis from that page:

"A carbon tax is a way — the only way, really — to have users of carbon fuels pay for the climate damage caused by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If set high enough, it becomes a powerful monetary disincentive that motivates switches to clean energy across the economy, simply by making it more economically rewarding to move to non-carbon fuels and energy efficiency."

This explanation makes the point that the main way a carbon tax works is by *disincentivizing* pollution. It's not exactly about the revenue raised. The revenue generated can be spent on anything -- from a border wall, to additional green energy tax credits, to plugging shortfalls in the social security fund, etc.

I like to use the example of funding a border wall because it signals my willingness to compromise with the right to get one of their priorities accomplished if they'll compromise with me by supporting a carbon tax. This is the kind of horsetrading that has become a lost political art

Herp-a-derp-a-derp-a-derp-derp-derp!

I agree! Because 7.7 billion humans release greenhouse gases!

So: what are we gonna do about that? Give up or try our best to make living more sustainable?

You can stop breathing.

That’s one vote for “give up”: anyone else in the peanut gallery?