“The primary aim of carbon taxation was changing behaviour, not revenue collection.”
From BD Live:
Treasury director Ismail Momoniat said the primary aim of carbon taxation was changing behaviour, not revenue collection. The easy start to it would last only five years, he said at the release of the Treasury’s long-awaited second discussion document on carbon taxation.
Comment must reach the Treasury by August 2.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in his budget speech this year that carbon taxation would be imposed from January 1 2015. Carbon dioxide, the most ubiquitous of the greenhouse gases and the emission of which is linked to climate change, has become a proxy for them all.
“The question is, how can you change for the future?… If people find ways around it we will turn up the heat,” Mr Momoniat said.
I know. The conflict is that we don’t want to be governed by people who are bent on governing us. It would be far better if they were doing it as a duty, as they did in ancient Greek towns that developed successful democratic governance. Distributing administrative duties to all citizens by draft or rotation surely made their lives less pleasant and their activities less efficient, but at least it protected them from deadly levels of corruption.
Today, in delegating our duties to a select group of people, who are ostensibly better suited for those duties than we are, we are effectively electing our foes.
“Treasury director Ismail Momoniat said the primary aim of carbon taxation was changing behaviour, not revenue collection. ”
Refreshingly honest for the socialists – a tyrant wanna-be who openly admits to it.
South Africa was one of the wealthiest nations below the Sahara and perhaps still is. This kind of policy squanders the legacy they owe their sons and daughters, though.
Gene, we need some government. It should be minimal, in the libertarian view. The view you express is the optimistic form of anarchy. But even people who wish to cooperate effectively have uses for courts, public safety, and other genuine public goods. That means some form of government. Since an awful lot of people either don’t wish to cooperate or don’t understand how to do so, we need a bit more government than the minimum to pave the streets and put out fires.
This just goes to show that libertarians were right all along. We don’t need, nor can afford to have a government. There is not such thing as good government.