Message to Global Warming Deniers and Micromanaging Liberals

To Those Who Deny Global Warming or that It Is Not Caused by Human Activity

I hope that I have convinced you that climate change caused by global warming is real, it is primarily created by human activity and is causing damages that make it imperative to use government tax-shifting policies to reduce it.

Unfortunately, human activities that release undesirable amounts of a gas into the atmosphere cannot be stopped without using the force of government, because air is, by its nature, mostly common property. Common property means following the principle of distribution of communism as defined by Karl Marx: “to each according to their needs” to engage in the human activity of emitting excessive amounts of harmful gases into the atmosphere.

As much as we may want air to be private property so it would be better cared for, that is not practical or enforceable because it moves around on its own. In many cases, the least costly and most practical way to prevent the abuse of the air that occurs because it is inevitably common property is to shift taxation to those activities that use the air as a dumping place of unwanted gases, like those that cause global warming.

Air pollution is not a “market failure” as it has been frequently described (see Climate Change and the Federal Reserve for an example of the use of this phrase). Most air cannot have a market because it cannot be held as private property. Air pollution or excess of CO2 occurs because air cannot have a market, not because the market failed.

One of the most accepted roles of government is to define and enforce property rights and responsibilities, and this includes those related to common property. What I am proposing here does just that, at the lowest cost and with the least government intrusion into people's lives.

To Those that Ignore the Cost Effectiveness of Policies to Reduce Global Warming

I hope I have convinced micromanaging liberals, socialist, most environmentalists and most of the media of the importance of: (1) evaluating government measures in terms of their cost effectiveness and (2) using broad taxing powers (not detailed regulations and targeted subsidies) to harness the power of market prices as incentives for private businesses and individuals to decisively act to avoid harming our environment.

If you really want to prevent the damage being done by global warming, liberals and environmentalists need to stop getting all excited about every specific government programs like subsidizing electric cars, solar panels and wind power or setting minimum auto mileage standard. You should start thinking in terms of what measures are most effective and have the lowest cost to incentivize the public to reduce its use of whatever causes global warming. Given an incentive, individuals will make a better specific decisions than the government. They know what works best in their own situation and have the motivation to choose the most cost- effective method of accomplishing it.

Resources have costs because they are limited, not just in total, but in the amount the public is will to pay to use them to reduce global warming. Given that the level of costs that the public is willing to endure is limited, the more cost-effective an environmental measure is, the more good it can do.

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Footnotes

(5) We have all seen how congestion lasts for hours after the peak our traffic that created it. It takes a relatively small reduction in traffic to prevent the original congestion. The disproportionate reduction in cost from this prevention comes from avoiding all that extra time it takes for the congested traffic to clear out. See Cato Institute, Policy Analysis, Solution to Congestion, pages 3-7. Also see US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Congestion Pricing

(6) Quotes from U.S. Energy Information Administration, Direct Federal Financial Interventions and Subsidies in Energy in Fiscal Year 2016, “The scope and complexity of federal financial and award activities are very large and spread over a wide range of sources, recipients, and time frames.” and “Most current federal subsidies support developing renewable energy supplies (primarily biofuels, wind, and solar) and reducing energy consumption through energy efficiency.“

Published on April 30, 2019.