[coldtea]

And because the percentage of income one spends for "packaged products" is gets lower the richer you get (and gets capped), the rich can just put aside a "pollute as much as I like" percentage of their income just for not having to care about recycling.

[lotsofpulp]

Being rich implies being able to consume more. That’s the difference between rich and not rich.

[coldtea]

No, that's a trailer park idea of the rich.

Being rich implies more wealth and power, which is different than consumption, and that is the actual difference between rich and not rich.

Rich people can and do consume more, but, unless you're some kind of gaudy nouveaux into bling or Saudi oil heir, there's only so much you can spend on the kind of "packaged products" we're discussing (and clothes, foods, gadgets, and so on) as part of your everyday life.

Rich will buy a fancier car (or cars), a nicer house (or houses), etc, but those are long term anyway, and can even be investments in themselves. They don't get new "packaged products" in any substantial number more than middle class people.

https://slate.com/business/2013/01/yacht-economics-rich-peop...

[lotsofpulp]

It’s the same definition, being able to consume more means having the power to consume more.

A bigger home, traveling further, fancier cars, are all more polluting than a few “package products”. I would bet an accurate tracking of externalities (especially due to extra fuel usage due to extra travel), rich people wouldn’t just be able to ignore it.

[Dylan16807]

As long as the tax is greater than the cleanup cost, they should be encouraged to do so.