Tax Gas
TNR joins the Pigou Club.
i'm attracted by the idea, but even simpler solution seems possible: cut subsidies. if Americans had to pay market prices for gasoline - as Europeans do - then they would consume less of it - as Europeans do. increasing taxes on a subsidized industry makes less sense to me than simply cutting out the subsidies. the effect is the same, but with an added plus: it reduces economic distortions instead of increasing them.
i'm attracted by the idea, but even simpler solution seems possible: cut subsidies. if Americans had to pay market prices for gasoline - as Europeans do - then they would consume less of it - as Europeans do. increasing taxes on a subsidized industry makes less sense to me than simply cutting out the subsidies. the effect is the same, but with an added plus: it reduces economic distortions instead of increasing them.
Labels: Carbon Tax, Economics, Pigou Club
posted by Kindred Winecoff at
5:31 PM
2 Comments:
Not true. Europeans pay high taxes on gasoline.
i'm sorry... what is not true? i never said that Europeans didn't pay taxes. i simply said that they pay market prices (or closer to them than Americans do).
the fact is that, because of subsidies, American consumers pay less for their gas than they should. eliminating the subsidies would have roughly the same effect as a Pigouvian tax, but without the tax.
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