No, it’s not. Any economist will tell you that the best way of making companies care about the environment is to make them have to pay for every bit of pollution they generate. It’s called taxing an externality, and it’s basically the best solution we have to the tragedy of the commons.
I think there’s better options. Like creating strict laws to control pollution and revoking companies their right to run their business if they don’t comply and have the people in charge face potential jail time if it has adverse health on local residents or destroys the local ecology.
Yeah but none of that is realistically possible. The cost of enforcing those rules and ensuring that companies aren’t finding loopholes to skirt the law is untenable. A carbon tax is simple, easy to track, and if companies try to get around it, then it’s tax evasion (and not the kind that can be mitigated by moving to Panama or Ireland), which the government usually takes pretty seriously.
No, it’s not. Any economist will tell you that the best way of making companies care about the environment is to make them have to pay for every bit of pollution they generate. It’s called taxing an externality, and it’s basically the best solution we have to the tragedy of the commons.
I think there’s better options. Like creating strict laws to control pollution and revoking companies their right to run their business if they don’t comply and have the people in charge face potential jail time if it has adverse health on local residents or destroys the local ecology.
Yeah but none of that is realistically possible. The cost of enforcing those rules and ensuring that companies aren’t finding loopholes to skirt the law is untenable. A carbon tax is simple, easy to track, and if companies try to get around it, then it’s tax evasion (and not the kind that can be mitigated by moving to Panama or Ireland), which the government usually takes pretty seriously.