"Why don’t we put a steadily rapidly increasing world wide tax on fossil fuels, rebating much of it to poor people so that they are not paying more for their necessities, but creating a strong incentive to everyone else to shift to other sources of energy? And the most able to pay happen to be the ones most in need of such an incentive.
Who could possibly object to such a policy?"
Because…everyone pays.
All municipal services cost goes up. Real estate taxes go up to cover it. The poor pay that tax. Plus they likely have older less efficient cars with lower MPG than middle class folks, often 3 and 4 owner 10 and 15 and 20 years.
Who determines who is poor?
The cost of food rises by at least double the increase in fuel taxes. Farming, transportation, food processing, shipping…make things a lot more expensive.
In addition, US factories now hampered with higher costs for energy, including electricity from natural gas (which is about 50% of total generation since the sun doesn’t shine at night)…will be less competitive with exports. More Asian imports. Fewer US jobs.
Any tax ripples through the system and the ‘wise’ WOKE folks in DC will likely siphon 30% off the top to pay for administration and government ‘green programs’ like buying a zillion EVs so THEY don’t have to pay the tax, and slosh out the remainder to political favored groups. first…
Oh, did I mention inflation? With the cost of everything going up, due to shipping, higher employee demands for higher wages to cover their commute costs, higher heating bills, higher you think another couple percent inflation on top of 5% already is reason to object to ‘such a policy’?
Likely folks bills will go up 30% and the government will hand back a few bucks to ‘the poor’ that won’t cover it.
Of course, as more folks move to ‘green energy’, less and less tax will be collected and the system will quickly implode, too… that after the economy implodes.
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