Hmmm... taxes. Don't we already pay like half a dozen of taxes with money that's already been taxed? Leave it to politicians to fvck things up.

Those taxes meant to curb behaviors are the worst. They're the government's cash cows. They tax products that are massively consumed. Tax them enough to create cash flow into the governments pocket but not so much that people will actually STOP buying those products (i.e. tobacco, gasoline, alcohol...). How they decide how much, is an art form in itself.

I'll listen to the interview as soon as I have a chance. The little I watched was quite an eye-opener.

Alex

>>Hi Dragan,
>>
>>I don't buy the global warming idea yet. Didn't believe it when it first surfaced and I'm still skeptical. Even more so in the light that the famous hockey-stick graph that got it all started is based on erroneous data and/or erroneous data-gathering methods.
>>
>>To me, the data doesn't go back in time enough to determine whether global warming is a trend or part of a cycle.
>>
>>Having said this, however, I believe in all the efforts made to counteract it. I think they are positive. Save water, polute less, save energy, look for alternative sources thereof - they're all good things for the planet and I do as much as I can to follow those guidelines.
>>
>>If the only way to get the masses to follow suit and change their habits energy and polution-wise, then, by all means, be machiavelic and use fear to promote these practices.
>>
>>Really, this is all good. The outcome can't be nice if we keep messing up our environment the way we have so far.
>>
>>What all this reminds me of is how spinach became the perfect food back in the 40's, after a nutritional chart had its decimal point mistakenly moved one place to the right, making it seem 10 times better than the rest of the stuff that kids hate to eat. (BTW, I don't remember where I read this, so it might be a hoax, but sounds plausible to me.)
>
>My family is doing its part for years - getting our house(s) as insulated as possible, riding bicycles wherever practicable (and I have stretched "practicable" to include snow, sleet and ice for many winters), we have planted about 1700 trees, and I've avoided lot of gasoline burning by telecommuting for eight years now. That's all fine and as it should be - don't waste, replenish as much as you can, make it all last longer.
>
>It's the reductionist logic that wants to reduce production and tax everything under the pretense of helping this fight to preserve the planet - the 10% ethanol in the fuel which has doubled the price of food (which I predicted the day the 10% was introduced - corn is 90% of the food - just couldn't imagine it would have this much impact on the price, expected 20-30% rise). Just watch the whole Monckton interview (link below) - while I practically can't stand the guy and his mindless anticommunist propaganda, his picture of what's going on is very clear, and IMO, very close to the whole truth.
>
>>>And that's from a single day's sample, as unscientific as it gets. Here's a person of distinction, if I haven't posted this already: lord Monckton:
>>>http://clareswinney.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/monckton-on-climategage-the-evidence-that-shows-global-warming-is-a-fraud/