 instituted so as to prevent recurrence of such incidents and adequate compensation and relief and rehabilitation assistance be extended.
I just got an email asking me to sign on to an open letter arguing for some carbon tax policies. I’m seeing some push back from (smart, economically literate) Facebook friends, but I think it’s a viable step in the right direction.
Here’s the statement paraphrased:
We think global warming is an important and urgent issue and we recommend these five things:
1. A carbon tax is the best, most cost-efficient way to do as much about carbon as needs to be done. [For a given level of carbon reduction, I agree. How much carbon reduction should happen (and how much at government behest) I am deeply agnostic about.]
2. We think this should be phased in over time and should be revenue neutral. [Yes on both points, but the rest of the statement makes it seem like they’re talking about a pretty short time horizon. I’m not sure how fast is too fast, but I’m sure there’s such thing.]
3. A carbon tax is more efficient than a set of specific regulations. [Certainly!] It’s also less likely to be subject to changing political winds. [Is it though?]
4. We should also apply a carbon tax to imported goods. This would reward energy-efficient American firms and prod other countries to follow suit. [Hmmmm… I can’t really disagree with the general principle, but this sounds like it will require bureaucratic oversight that will be subject to regulatory capture. On the other hand, we’ve already got that.]
5. We should give the revenue collected back to U.S. citizens, to offset increases in energy prices. [Okay, but if it’s going to be revenue neutral and come with a transfer scheme, that’s going to take some detangling!]
I buy into the notion that carbon emissions create large scale externalities that will probably be more bad than good on balance. Not universally bad, mind you. And not something that humanity won’t ultimately adapt to. But I think the people who will face the brunt of the bad outcomes will be the world’s poor (who we should help migrate to better climates!).
I don’t think we can just impose “the right” carbon tax and have everything come out just right. Even though I routinely draw out the case with a supply and demand graph in class, the truth is that nobody has access to those curves in real life. But a small tax can serve to reduce the inefficiency of pollution even if we don’t get it exactly right.
The revenue neutral part is important–we’re currently taxing lots of things we actually want more of (like investment). So if we can cut those taxes by taxing things we want less of (pollution), we’re reducing two sources of inefficiency in the current setup. Of course you and I have bolder views about what policy should look like in 100 years, but restricted to a 10 year window, a revenue neutral carbon tax looks pretty good to me.
The letter dramatically over-simplifies things. Climate change is probably a problem, but probably not as big a problem as proffered by proponents of proposals to prepare for apocalypse. It’s not clear to me that we have a good idea of a) all of the effects (good and bad), b) how people will adapt, and c) how people will adapt to a changing policy regimen.
Figuring out how to handle the tax on imports will be difficult and rife with rent seeking. Unmentioned is the impact on exports. If all our trading partners follow a similar policy, there’s no problem, but in the mean time there’s a tension that will probably be resolved with some unfortunate bit of rent seeking.
I’m sure most reasonable people would agree that instantaneous change would probably be unduly costly, but it’s not clear what the right speed of implementation is.
There are some miscellaneous rhetorical points I have issue with, but I suspect those are in there to throw a bone to people who aren’t me.
I hope that 10 years from now this open letter looks a bit silly. But I also hope that 10 years from now pollution taxes start to replace more inefficient taxes. On balance, I’m happy to see the letter prodding us in that direction.
8 thoughts on “RE: Economists’ Statement on Carbon Dividends”
Reblogged this on Utopia – you are standing in it!.
Every tax the government creates,starts out small.
[…] This post is in response to feedback from my previous post on this topic. […]
What further thoughts? I don’t see any. And when I followed the link, there was nothing.
Great article! You make very good points about the economic impacts of carbon tax and how the rate of implementation would alter those effects. However, I think more emphasis needs to be put on the fact that there is a very limited timespan available in which we can reverse the effects of climate change. A thriving economy is all well and good but I wonder how much it will be thriving when the government has to spend billions and billions on infrastructure repair following floods, hurricanes, wildfires etc. Here’s an article I wrote recently about the environmental side of carbon tax/cap and trade schemes
[…] policy evaluation all the more difficult. Which is part of the controversy with my recent posts on pollution […]
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Alternativa de aceite para el cabello.
Finally, Apple takes care responsibility of the MacBook or MacBook Pro broken keyboard issue.
Apple introduces first keyboard design in 2015, in that time its face many of trouble situation.
Although the keyboard service program to replace the individual key, what’s necessary of the recent MacBook models?
While some user feels embraced to use thinker laptop in their professional work areas but there are those PC users prefer to click satisfyingly on a mechanical keyboard. But the 2015 MacBook user started running issues on the technical term.
According to the AppleInsider investigator, April 2018 MacBook Pro model keyboard failure is the biggest issue, older model performing well than the newer version.
Keys would not work properly another thing too many of characters would appear with each of key press. Also, the investigator noticed that the 2017 model is better but no too much.
A couple week later, unhappy customer banded together and hit to Apple lawsuit for described as defected keyboards. Probably it’s not clear how much people impact to the Apple decision to launch their repair program.
MacBook Pro and MacBook dealing all of this upcoming issues, including the Apple “letter or characters repeat with unawares” and the letter appear or characters feel sticky or do not respond in a consistent manner, the authorized service provider makes an appointment to fix out to the issue.
Otherwise, any keyboard repair is too necessary in that case it will provide no-cost services. While you might face some charges if damage in your laptop some of another way that you point it to keyboard repairs.
Also, Apple says “no other MacBook model part of this program” anyone who paid for laptop repair than their free to contact Apple and get the refund.
What’s the new MacBook Pro keyboard improvement?Villager