[jpao79]

More fair points. And, yes at the individual level, I agree, a higher wage, trickle up approach seems better/fairer than a trickle down approach.

However, at the macro level, the environmentalist in me worries, at the extreme end if wealth really was fully distributed and everyone was living like Richard Branson, Imelda Marcos, etc. with multiple houses in every city (each with a 4 bedroom layout, TVs and wet bar in every room and an SUV in every garage), a yacht, a private jet guzzles premium fuel and a private island, the environmental ramifications would be disastrous.

[ubernostrum]

You seem to be setting up a false dichotomy where the only options are the status quo, or your extreme hypothetical.

There are other options. Some countries use taxation policy to try to set a floor through which nobody is allowed to fall, and as a side effect also limit the ceiling of how high up someone can be on the wealth continuum. Why isn't the "environmentalist" in you familiar with this idea?

[fjsolwmv]

Are you saying that a billionaire's carbon impact per dollar spent is lower than an average person's? That's an extraordinary claim.

[jpao79]

The environmentalist in me is thinking a single billionaire's carbon impact is probably lower than a 1,000 millionaire's carbon impact. A single billionaire (say Warren Buffet) has a consumption of probably $200,000 a year with the remainder held in investments. A 1,000 millionaire's consumption is probably also $100,000 a year, with the remainder held in investments. So the 1,000 millionaires have basically about 500x the environmental impact than a single billionaire.