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The people who insist that "the Green New Deal" is wildly popular need to reckon with the fact that THREE QUARTERS of Americans oppose raising the federal gas tax by 25 CENTS A GALLON.
(via @mattyglesias)
(via @mattyglesias)
The economic and personal sacrifice that the average American would have to make in order to ban all fossil fuels within 10 years is orders of magnitude larger than a 25 cent gas tax increase. It's the right thing to do, but it WILL involve sacrifice.
All the people who say that a massive decarbonization effort will pay for itself are feeding you a line. It's worth doing because allowing climate change to continue is unacceptable. But it will involve broad, shared sacrifice. It will NOT be a freebie, as some claim.
If we tell people that a massive decarbonization effort won't involve broad, shared sacrifice, we are lying to people. Period. We're being Art Laffer. And when the times comes to actually enact the policies, people will balk.
We DO need a massive decarbonization effort to avert the disaster of climate change.
But this effort, like World War 2, will be costly and difficult. We need to prepare people for that reality, or they'll balk when it comes time to actually do it.
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But this effort, like World War 2, will be costly and difficult. We need to prepare people for that reality, or they'll balk when it comes time to actually do it.
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