Re:America’s losing battle against diabetes
by mumblemumble on Friday August 13, 2021 @12:31PM
(#28171101)
Excise taxation is not the same thing as price setting, though.
If you want a good explanation for what excise taxation's about, albeit one that uses stodgy, old-fashioned language, you need look no further than Adam Smith's writings on the subject in The Wealth of Nations.
Re:America’s losing battle against diabetes
by willcipriano on Friday August 13, 2021 @12:37PM
(#28171177)
If the intention is to implement a carbon tax, I see no way of doing so without some relatively accurate measure of carbon output. Without that you are taxing not carbon but instead something else.
Re:America’s losing battle against diabetes
by nradov on Friday August 13, 2021 @12:47PM
(#28171345)
Sensible carbon tax proposals are generally based on extraction, not consumption. There are only a limited number of companies mining coal and drilling oil. Those can be measured fairly easily.
Re:America’s losing battle against diabetes
by willcipriano on Friday August 13, 2021 @12:53PM
(#28171425)
The simplifies the problem technically and complicates it politically, at least in the US. Those hardest hit by a tax implemented that way are friendly with the elite of the US, so much so we have been at war with their enemies for decades.
I'd say it's harder to create a measure of carbon output for a given finished product that is remotely accurate. It really depends where each part of the pencil was manufactured, what specific materials are used, what manufacturing processes were applied, how each raw material was shipped, etc. Take that multiply it by a billion products and you have a huge mess.