RoR: Forum

I don't know about Al Gore, but you would expect Thomas Friedman to already see the folly of state based solutions. In The World is Flat; he laments the bureaucratic inefficiency of several nations whose legal systems came about under centrally planned regimes. Strange that he wouldn't recognize pigovian taxes as an unfortunate holdover from this mindset.

Post 1

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - 8:19am

This is a great and much needed article!

Check out www.abetterearth.org for free market alternatives to environmental concerns.

Post 2

Thursday, June 22, 2006 - 4:15am

Dr. Tibor Machan wrote: ... their suggested solution is Neanderthal.

It is a quibble, but this is unfair to the Neanderthals. They had bigger brains than Cro-Magnons and a more individualist style of survival, with smaller groups, thinly dispersed. We are here today because our ancestors were genetic collectivists who successfully outcompeted genetic individualists. Unless someone has a better understanding of paleolithic humanity, we have to live with that brutal fact. Furthermore, it appears that Neanderthals decorated graves (recognition of human spirit) and kept alive individuals otherwise too old or infirm to survive on their own (value of accumulated knowledge). So, whoever or whatever they were, they deserve better than to be likened to political greens.

Post 3

Thursday, June 22, 2006 - 5:17am

Okay, from now on lets group political greens with Austrolopithicans!

Post 4

Saturday, June 24, 2006 - 2:46pm

It hadn't occurred to me that the use of oil has been heavily subsidized by government road systems and by other interventions--taxes and regulatory costs--that impede the efforts of businesses trying to accumulate capital to compete with existing already-capitalized firms. That's a good point.

Post 5

Sunday, June 25, 2006 - 1:42am

A note: I'm in Europe at the moment following the WC2006. The idea that high gas taxes will get people out of cars is plainly ridiculous. Gas is 3-4 times the US price here due to taxes. The streets and highways are just as clogged (if not more so) than in the US.
(Edited by Jordan Zimmerman
on 6/25, 1:43am)

Post 6

Sunday, June 25, 2006 - 2:55am

Here is where predicting what people will do in response to either what governments mandate or even what other people do is not simple. If higher taxes are imposed, instead of changing from fossil fuel to something new most people may just give up some other purchases and continue driving gasoline fueled cars. Also, I am told by those who have followed it, gasoline prices today do not amount to as high a percentage of people's expenses as they used to. Which suggests that, relatively. gas prices are lower than they were in, say, the 80s. Also, and I am only speculating here, suppose cars are more efficient now as well as more enjoyable, reliable, and attractive--all of that could prompt people to keep buying them and paying higher gas prices than before.

Post 7

Sunday, June 25, 2006 - 1:51pm