“The Most Sensible Tax of All”, July 5, 2012. It’s co-authored with economist and law professor Shi-Ling Hsu, author of The Case for a Carbon Tax (recently reviewed here).
In somewhat related news, Bob Inglis (former Congressman, R-SC) has launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative to make the conservative case for climate action. See also “An Emissions Plan Conservatives Could Warm To”, his NYT op-ed from 2008, co-authored with Art Laffer.
Thanks for supporting resource use taxation. I guess Henry George would worry that what’s left in the ground wouldn’t be taxed, but maybe that’s for the best, to inspire resource conservation.
I’m working on a section of the platform for the Green-Rainbow Party here in Massachusetts (GRP = local rep of GPUS).
I’m trying to write something gripping to prospective Greens on economics. I’d love to here what you think of it, if you’re interested, in terms of accord with ecological economics and re: readability.
I’ve noticed that some US Greens argue that job reductions in the future are inevitatble, and we should just get used to it by jobsharing/worksharing/reducing the workweek length. But I see the classic drive to eliminate labor with resource use to have exceeded it’s earlier appropriateness, and I expect that we can use more labor, which we have anyway, and less resources, which we’re running out of, and be better off (less polllution, etc.)
Am I out to lunch with that argument? I think it’s a powerful one for US Greens to make, but don’t hear it much. I’ll concede that in the long run we’ll all be dead; meanwhile worksharing (lessening the workweek to spread work to un- and underemployed, with unemployment assistance going most of the way toward a full paycheck for the partially idled, until the economy improves).
Anyway, I’m considering advocating taxshifting, perhaps on a state or city level, to reverse income taxes by rebating federal income tax payments, and paying for that by state-level taxation of resource use. Tax coorrection, if you will.
Sincerely,
Brian Cady
Oops, I trailed off mid-sentence there… meanwhile worksharing can help less franchised groups now, easing social tensions, promoting social cohesion.
[YB: Edited slightly. Overall I don’t think much about worksharing. See the relevant chapter of Cartoon Macro :)]