A Carbon Tax Will Destroy Our Economy

The idea of taxing carbon-based fuel by charging for every pound of carbon put into the air has been dismissed by Congress and the American public without much thought of the possible benefits and exaggerated claims on what it would do to our competitiveness. 

The typical fee quoted is about $30 per ton of carbon, although there is nothing sacred about this value.  At this fee level it would cost perhaps a trillion dollars a year.  Or, put another way, it would pay off about a trillion dollars of debt a year.  What the tax level should be depends on what we are going to do with the money, what other countries charge, and how serious we are about setting an example to the world on minimizing climate change.

Okay, the biggest argument is that it would make American business non-competitive.  First, competitiveness does not depend on absolute costs but relative costs.  If every country had a carbon tax, no advantage would accrue to any nation.  Perhaps, those countries that use less energy per capita, would have to pay less, but in general they have less.  So, it is a tax that is automatically prorated according to the ability to pay and the efficiency with which the energy is used.

With regard to competitiveness of the U.S. with a carbon tax we have to look to China first, are they likely to pass a carbon tax.  China is drowning in pollution, the air around its biggest cities is atrocious.  A carbon tax would be a first step in fighting pollution in China and they are seriously considering a carbon tax.   Of course, there major concern is competitiveness with guess who, us.  A chicken and egg problem. 

So, we negotiate with China the phasing in of a carbon tax in both countries.  Europe, Australia, and most of Asia will probably follow as America takes a leadership role in global warming.  America could phase in a carbon tax, say $5 per ton, and wait for the world to follow us.  When the major players commit to $5/ton, we go to $10/ton, etc.  It's called leadership, it was what America used to do.

Now, here is some inside scoop.  America has the cheapest natural gas in the world and even with a carbon tax the U.S. is positioned as the global leader with energy intensive projects such as making fertilizer, ammonia, urea, electricity, aluminuim, magnesium, silicon, solar panels, titanium, etc.   The problem is not our compeititive position in America, our problem is that we are destroying the middle class and with it the customer that keeps the market place humming.  

If competitiveness is not an issue, then what should we spend the money on?   Paying off the debt seems like a area where we would get across the board acceptance.  Perhaps some large energy projects such as intelligent power grids, solar and wind farms, energy research, more efficient and electric cars, public transportation, improved train freight initiatives, intelligent traffic control, and perhaps education, especially in the math and sciences.

Another option would be to phase in a carbon tax while phasing out corporate taxes.  If we want American profits to stay in America the corporate tax, which encourages nothing but going aboard to countries with low corporate taxes would be replaced by a tax that was at worse incrementally higher than our competitors (China) by the staged approach above.  And given that a carbon tax encourages energy efficiency and reliance on substantiable forms of energy such as nuclear, wind, and solar, it is a win-win.  (Calling Nuclear Power substantiable is another blog.) 

All Student Deaths are Equal

Ever heard of Harper High School?  Ever heard of the 27 children killed there last year?  You didn't because they are not important like the rich white kids at Columbine High School.  Just poor black kids shot in the neighborhoods around the school. Gang shootings.  If you want to survive, you have to be in a gang.  Your gang protects you, other gangs kill you.

We just sent Pakistan $240 million to help them secure their country.  Is that right?  How much goes to Chicago to secure the neighborhoods around Harper High School.

When I lived in Peru, I always felt safe in downtown Lima because a soldier stood guard on all the key intersections with a machine gun, probably an assault weapon, I'm not a gun man.

 I once went to a beautiful waterfall in the Amazon forest.  A soldier with a machine gun waved me into my parking spot.  More soldiers lined the top of the mountain ridge as I walked down a path for a few miles on the way to a glorious waterfall.  I was told not to go beyond the waterfall because the Shining Path still controll that part of the jungle.  (Cocaine funds the Shining Path, so again, thank you America for the market.)  People always react when I tell them of such stories with shock on their face and with comments, I would never want to be in such a place.

Guess what?  I would gladly go back to Peru instead of hanging around in the neighborhoods around Harper High School, or in most big cities after dark.  A white man, after dark in a gang controlled neighborhood of Chicago.  Get real, a white man stupid enough to be there after dark is going to die.  I suspect policemen are not going to be caught out alone at night in those neigborhoods.  Peru would care enough to secure the neighborhoods, but in America we send our troops to a 150 countries around the world to secure the world, forget poor black neighborhoods.  Forget our pathetic Congress taking on such issues.  No election is ever going to be won by addressing security in poor black neighborhoods.  

There are two Americas.  The one for rich Americans, like Lehman Brothes CEO who walked out with about $500 million in cash as his bank collasped and his country got plunged into the second depression/ big recession.  And a second America that exists in the slums where unemployment runs 25 to 50% and children try to stay alive long enough to get out of the neighborhood.  Our government meanwhile sends serious  money to Pakistan and Eygpt to buy friends and sends in troops all over the world to secure our financial interests (oil, etc.).  

And as Americans, we don't give a shit.  Screw Harper High School kids.  We can't even pass background checks even though 90% of Americans favored the act.  Congress works more for the NRA than us, accept it. Will Congress do anything to stop gangs from controlling streets in America?  We don't even officially track the deaths (again thanks to legislation backed by the NRA).  

In the America I grew up in at the age of eight I road a bus down town (without a cell phone) in El Paso, walked a half mile from the bus stop to the YMCA.  I lost my nickel sometimes for the ten-mile ride home, but the bus driver took me home anyway because I told him my mom would give me an extra nickel to pay him the next time I went downtown.  Where did that America go?

Accepting Death with Courage and Compassion

In 2010, my wife ended a two year battle with cancer.  The cancer won.  My daughter who tried to help me with the ordeal had an emotional break down and is still struggling with the after effects.  My wife fought well, she fought death with courage, but we as a family never had the compassion to let "her accept death with courage."  We never got to the point where we said enough of the painful chemo and radiation treatments.  Enough fighting battles in a war that is already lost.  We didn't have the compassion to let her know it was alright if she wanted to accept death and enjoy the end as best she could.

I blame a lot of this on our medical profession who has not learned to face death with courage much less coach their patients to do so.  Of course, euthanasia is deemed immoral by most religious groups and therefore forced upon me (in the land of the not so free).  But, even short of euthanasia, there needs to be coaching/therapy to the patience, family, and friends.  It doesn't happen in this country from my experience with my wife and a few friends.  No time is set aside to accept death and say our goodbyes. 

On a bigger front, a significant amount of our growing medical cost crisis comes from keeping people alive at all costs for as long as possible.  It is legally challenging to let someone die even when they have a living will.  To begin preparing someone for death at the beginning of the treatment cycle for critical diseases might be seen as giving up on someone, but the price we pay is that we do not make rational, informed, and caring decisions on how to live our last days.  And, we can easily run up millions of dollars of medical bills for our society and hundreds of thousands of dollars for our family above what insurance will cover. 

I have always said I hope I get to live my last days well and then die in the woods.  I mean that a little metaphorically, but the spirit of what I am saying is this: "I want to live well and then, when it is time, accept death with courage."  I would like the support of my family and society when it is time.

No Honorable Way Out

Guantanamo Bay.  Ugly situation.  89 of the 160 prisoners there have been cleared for release by the military.  This of course does not mean they are innocent, because in the military system you are guilty until you're proven innocent -- except of course you don't ever get your day in court to prove your innocence.  So basically, once picked up you always guilty.  So, some of the guilty ones have been cleared for release ... perhaps a form of less guilty.

Ignore the 100 prisoners whose hopelessness has turned into a hunger strike, or the 27 that are being forced fed to keep them alive.   Let's just think about the 89 that have been cleared for release, some of which are on the hunger strike.

Will the 89 less guilty prisoners (where do they get the term detainees, is that supposed to make us feel better) ever be freed.  Apparently, it takes action by Congress to make that happen; at least to finance their move back to their native country.  Yea, in reality, it is probably bribes paid to high officials in the other countries to accept the return of these prisoners.  Any one in Congress that takes up the cause of the prisoners is probably not going to be re-elected.  It is not accident that Obama did not push too hard on Guantanamo Bay issue in his first term.  So, a Congressman doing something just because it is the right thing to do ... fat chance of that happening.  (Look at immigration reform and see how well Congress is doing.  NOT.)

So, what is going to happen to the prisoners.  Simple, they are going to die for the most part in prison.  The military is currently building a cardiac care building anticipating caring for these prisoners as they age.  And some will be successful in killing themselves despite the military's efforts to stop them.

In all there is no honorable way out for America, at least none that we are likely to take.  Or perhaps, there is no honor left in America? What have we created?  The best recruitment tool for terrorism since the Iraq invasion.  We have created 160 martyrs for the cause of Jihad.  We have also decided that security is more important than our principles.  We have gone further than that even, we have shown the world how callous and uncaring we Americans can be.