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Paying Ourselves to Decarbonize (noemamag.com)
1 point by foundart on Feb 26, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


The issue with Carbon Tax I have. It impacts the poorest people first. If the price of my food doubles I still don't have to pick food or rent. If gas doubles I still drive as much as I did before. It's impact is marginal.

If I was living at or near my income, then adding $10 to the price of food makes me pick between a box of KraftDinner and a Chicken.

It is important to realise “paying the social cost of carbon” is all well and good when you don't have to choose which member of your family goes to bed hungry.


The article addresses that very concern:

> Another frequently used phrase is “putting a price on carbon,” as the president of the World Bank Group begged the world to do nearly a decade ago. This is a way of calling for taxes, which would require legislative action, and of course, many people don’t like the idea of taxes. But if carbon burn were taxed in a progressive way, dislike of a carbon tax might be mitigated. It might also be possible to funnel some of the taxed income directly back to citizens, also progressively.


An essay by sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson




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