Posted on 11/19/2013 5:21:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Is there such a thing as "global warming pragmatism?"
Robert J. Samuelson, who writes on economics for the Washington Post, thinks so -- and he's just flat wrong. Samuelson seeks to bridge differences over a polarized and contentious issue: "man-made" global warming. Problem is, Samuelson's bridge is plenty of girders, cables, concrete, and asphalt short of making it to the other shore.
Samuelson is much taken with the work of an MIT economist, Robert Pindyck. Pindyck, according to Samuelson is a difference-splitter. Can't say that global warming is overstated, but can't say it's understated. When in doubt, tax -- carbon tax everything -- though modestly, just in case.
In Samuelson's very own words:
"Pindyck sounds like a 'global warming denier.' He isn't. True, he thinks climate change and its adverse economic consequences could be wildly overstated. He also thinks they could be wildly understated. The effects might ultimately be catastrophic. We simply don't know. Ignorance reigns."
This turns the axiom of "when in doubt, do nothing" on its head. Ignorance and uncertainty are really solid ground for tax policy, much less any other kind of major policy? Samuelson should well appreciate that ignorance and uncertainty could make for ruinous policy with a lot of unintended ill consequences.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The peasants aren’t paying their fair share. Why should we better people take care of them out of the goodness of our hearts?
If you don’t have a clue tax something!! Econ 306
If the tactic was...no more six or eight cylinder cars, or limited air travel, or enforced public building temperatures in the winter of 60 degrees and in summer with AC working to keep you at 90 degrees...then there would be some sense of reacting to the ‘emergency’.
In this case....you can keep doing what you are currently doing....as bad as it is....as long as you pay a tax. That gimmick simply means absolute agreement that what you do....ever how wasteful....isn’t going to change anything.
After a few minutes....any fool would realize the whole game and just start laughing. Carbon taxes are simply a poker game tactic where you shift the money from the left hand to the right hand, but keep right on playing poker, at the same rate and pace.
So what kind of funding does this guy get? For some reason, he needs global warming to continue. Kinda like Jesse and Al need racism to continue in order to stay rich and will pull it out of thin air if necessary, this guy needs global warming to be true in order to keep the money coming in. Does he own stake in companies that make squiggly light bulbs?
The bed rock of the carbon tax is that is reaches those who have been taken off the tax roles and pay no federal taxes.
By taxing the energy providers, the tax trickles down to all, especially including those that pay no tax. The income tax can not be changed to eliminate the give aways because that would be political suicide.
The solution is to craft an invisible tax that all must pay. The carbon tax is just that tax.
Heh-heh; his name is Pin-dick! Unh huh.
You’ll stop trying to find logic in this type stuff when you realize that this type stuff comes from the minds of liberals. The logic is simply not there.
“The bed rock of the carbon tax is that is reaches those who have been taken off the tax roles and pay no federal taxes.”
The problem with that theory is the demonrats will promise subsidies to the po
I have considered that possibility, but discarded it. The perceived need for revenue requires more taxpayers, lots more tax payers.
The carbon tax precisely fills the need
Ironically, folks like Jesse and Al actually CREATE racism to advance their enterprise. What's worse is they have to create victims in order to create the racism. Global Warming is no different, except the alarmists can't nail down a solid victim (Temperatures, sea levels, hurricanes, etc.).
Imagine a business where you produce a product that is marketable. But you make sure it is intentionally flawed. Then you are able to go out and demagogue your own product and get people to support your effort (with treasure) to make the flawed product better. If you think about this for more than 10 seconds, it will occur to you that this is the liberal MO across the board. Racism, Obamacare, Welfare, Social Security, etc. Democrats can't afford for anything to go smoothly. They'd be out of work.
“Green” products is a billion dollar industry.
Speaking of the marketing angle.... If I owned a company that sold ‘green’ products like squiggly light bulbs, I would blame global warming on everything and make people feel guilty for not buying my ‘green’ lightbulbs.
If the global warming debate went away, I would be out of business.
So, of course, it would be in my interest to fund these hacks and twist these numbers to make global warming real.
And liberal hipsters buy into it so they feel like they have ‘made a difference’. They preach that war is a money enterprise, but eat up the global warming scam hook, line and sinker.
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