[bluetomcat]

Consider the following situation with parties A, B and C involved. "A" wants to do something that negatively affects B, while C is unaffected. The legislator would decide to compensate B, but who is taxed for that? In case of taxing A and C, C's freedom as a group would be compromised. In case of taxing only A, the cost would be prohibitive and could discourage A from wanting to do its thing in the first place.

[helen___keller]

Going from this post to your previous post:

> That would be identity politics 2.0 and the end of nation states

Still seems like a massive leap in rhetoric. The truth is that this sort of compensation already exists in the united states. For example: eminent domain, which requires a just compensation for government acquisition of private land. Another example, many cities require some form of compensation from a real estate developer to the surrounding community in exchange for a permit to undergo a big construction; for example, funding a public park or some such.

Neither of these examples seem like "identity politics 2.0" much less the end of nation states. You can argue it's ineffective public policy, but again its a massive leap in rhetoric you took with your earlier post.

[veridies]

> In case of taxing A and C, C's freedom as a group would be compromised.

True. That's why targeted taxes (eg carbon taxing) are often a good idea. However, if we as a society vote to do things that seriously harm a subset of society, then we as a society are partially responsible for that harm.

> In case of taxing only A, the cost would be prohibitive and could discourage A from wanting to do its thing in the first place.

I think it's entirely reasonable to price externalities into the cost of an action.

[katbyte]

Then maybe A just shouldn’t do the thing that’s going to harm B to a prohibitive amount?

[mensetmanusman]

Inventing the car hurt horse breeders and kicked off global climate change, I don’t think people would argue that their life would be better without the invention of the vehicle.