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Old 09-22-2008, 10:41 AM   #520
Bend it like Bourgeois
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Pagan View Post
Because a tax internalizes the costs of environmental pollution. Emitters will then seek out opportunities to minimize their costs. A cap and trade does the exact same thing just in a different way. Both policies are quintessential market mechanisms.
Both policies together are part of a market. If they authors meant simply insititute a tax on one part of the economy they probably would have said that. I guess we simply disagree on what a market approach is.

Quote:
It is passed along, through the tax...
Isn't the idea that consumers will not feel the pain? Gas prices, heating prices, transport prices will not go up thanks to reductions in fuel tax? Or do I have that wrong?

Imagine a cigarette tax that taxed manufacturers but promised a pack of smokes would cost the same thing. Would that be considered anything other than a tax on the manufacturers? Would anyone think it would reduce the amount of cigarette sales?

Maybe I'm just too cynical. But when the libs themselves call this a social spending initiaitve, when I haven't heard emissions reduction targets or stated goals other than to tax and spend, and when the majority of the costs are paid where they won't get votes anyway, I smell politics, not policy.
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