Green Taxes: A Hard Lesson For Environmental Lightweights
Posted by keith on May 2nd, 2008
So, as I suspected all along; according to an article in todays Independent, the public don’t support “green” taxes.
More than seven in 10 voters insist that they would not be willing to pay higher taxes in order to fund projects to combat climate change, according to a new poll.
Wow! What a revelation: people don’t want to pay money to save the planet. For some bizarre reason the mainstream environmental movement still think that money and the planet mix, and that if they can only persuade governemnts to impose taxes to change behaviour then everything will get better. For instance:
It’s tax time – time to fight global warming and save yourself some green at the same time.
Federal, state, and local governments offer a range of tax incentives, grants, and loans that will help you save energy, fight global warming, reduce your energy bills, and let you keep more green in your wallet after Tax Day comes around.
That’s our old friends The Sierra Club, talking up the “green dollar”.
Increasing taxes on fossil fuels is an essential weapon in the Government’s armoury for tackling climate change. And if Alistair Darling used these extra taxes to cut those on people and jobs, it would be extremely popular too. It’s time the Treasury played its full part in delivering a low-carbon economy.
Friends of the Earth this time.
It’s a funny subject, because governments are loathe to impose punative taxation on environmentally damaging activities — well, that would mean taxing everything, really — which would seem to suggest that “green” taxes are actually a good thing for the environment. Sure, a 100% increase in fuel duty might make people think twice about buying fuel, but it would also be a guaranteed vote loser. In an age of apparent environmental awareness, why should that be?
The simple fact is that the whole of civilization is geared towards making money.
Who wouldn’t complain if someone tried to take it away from you — for environmental reasons or not. The environmental mainstream are terminally stuck in a mindset that says it is possible to make things better by working within the system — imposing “green” taxes, making business “greener”, buying “green” products — the very system that is nothing without economic growth.
Fools!
Back to the Independent article:
The results of the poll by Opinium, a leading research company, indicate that maintaining popular support for green policies may be a difficult act to pull off, and attempts in the future to curb car use and publicly fund investment in renewable resources will prove deeply unpopular.
That’s not news — that’s just the way things are in this consumption culture.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:57 am
[…] Justin Wolfers wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptFor some bizarre reason the mainstream environmental movement still think that money and the planet mix, and that if they can only persuade governemnts to impose taxes to change behaviour then everything will get better. For instance: … […]
[Who’s Juston Wolfers? These trackback sites are weird!]
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 am
[…] The Unsuitablog wrote an interesting post today on Green Taxes: A Hard Lesson For Environmental LightweightsHere’s a quick excerptFederal, state, and local governments offer a range of tax incentives, grants, and loans that will help you save energy, fight global warming, reduce your energy b…It’s tax time – time to fight global warming and save yourself some green at the same time…. […]