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by abdullahkhalids 896 days ago
Depends on your political values. Many people think it is mandatory for governments to directly tax products with large negative externalities enough to price in those externalities. If a fossil fuel extraction system poisons a river, that needs to be priced in. If the government fails to tax what is mandatorily society's due, then it is a subsidy. Because we have to pay for the poisoned river in other ways.

> fossil fuels are under-subsidized by trillions of dollars because they are used to power hospitals

Nope. Governments/patients pay hospitals for their services, then hospitals pay power companies the market price for their services.