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by black_puppydog 2523 days ago
Seriously? Give out certificates (yes, that idea is not new, it's just limited to certain industries at the moment) and then let the price develop? Those certificates would be a rare resource. How many of those would the non-rich be able to afford, eh? If you look at movements such as extinction rebellion, reducing social (including financial) inequality is part and parcel of what they demand, exactly because the rich have not been paying their fair share. This is true on a national level, as well as a global level.

And yes, this all requires drastic lifestyle changes. That's the point. No lifestyle change, no climate effect. Simple as that.
2 comments
raxxorrax 2523 days ago
I agree but how do you think this drastic lifestyle change look would look like? The price of emission certificates would be reflected in the products you buy, of course.

That is a huge part of the criticism against a tax for households that are just responsible for 1/5th of emissions and I wouldn't include them in the emission trade at all. Because even today people don't waste significant energy for basic needs like heating, so any instrument can only be that effective.

And corporations are currently the only ones paying for every tonne of CO² they emit. And you want to change that to be extended to everyone... You might argue that they should pay more, but...

Of course people in many political parties are rubbing their hands that you actually want to increase tax burdens. Money solves problems, right?

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black_puppydog 2523 days ago
Looking at how much the top tax brackets (income and corporate) have moved over the last decades, I have an idea where to get the money to solve things. Plus, done like that, it would actually be a relative benefit to lower income tiers. Of course, that would still mean no flights or meat for poorer people, while rich people could afford those luxuries. But they need to be luxuries, at least until we figure out how to provide them in a climate neutral way.
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tomjen3 2522 days ago
They demand that because they are Marxists, but Marxism assumes that the entire system will soon collapse and must be replaced with Marxism, which was probably a sensible prediction when Marx made his observations, but hasn't been the case for 2 centuries.

So Marxists try to make it come true, by doing destructive things like the rebellion.

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