Quote:
Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies
I should remind you that this discussion began by the argument that these sacrifices are trivial compared to a worst-case scenario. Certainly a 45% tax rate is trivial compared to the lives of your children, or your childen's children. What in your mind is the worst-case consequence of climate change? What sacrifices would you make to prevent that potential eventuality?
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I've had a brilliant macro-economics professor at Cornell. He used to say: <<Whenever you guys see someone proclaiming something "for the sake of our children!", it probably means that good logic and sound economic sense cannot be used to support the argument. Most of the time, it also means that politicians somewhere want to get some additional billions of tax dollars.>>
As for personal sacrifices, I don't want to make any mandatory personal sacrifices for something that is arbitrary. Over time, issues that once seemed unresolvable tend to get resolved. New scientific discoveries come, new technologies get developed in time etc. I also don't want to make any personal sacrifices knowing that the sacrifices are allocated unevenly and unfairly. Why should I pay carbon tax for myself (driving an efficient vehicle, installing an efficient furnace) and for someone who gets a full refund for driving a stinky old clunker and burning fire wood?
If humans are in fact the primary cause of climate change, then most of the damage comes from SE Asia (China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia), where about half of the world population live and pollute everything around them like there's no tomorrow. What sacrifices are they willing to make and can they even make them without devastation?