Hacker News Reader

Comment by DAddYE | Hacker News Reader

I don't think will ever work. There are countries where taxes are way higher than US. For example in Italy [1] we are around 50% (including VAT and local taxes) and other than decreasing the productivity of companies it never had a "mind" impact. In fact Italy is one of the countries with most cars (per citizen) and that invest less/nothing in alternative energies.

[1] https://home.kpmg.com/xx/en/home/services/tax/tax-tools-and-...

View on HN

That's just a generic across the board tax you are talking about and linking to isn't it? Rather than a specific incentive/disincentive in one area (carbon emissions).

From the article:

> Musk, who has pushed for a carbon tax before, said the tax should be revenue neutral and phased in over a period of years. A revenue neutral tax means governments would still receive the same amount of money despite a change in the tax code. Under Musk’s scenario, taxes would be weighted heavily on carbon, and reduced in other areas. This approach already occurs, Musk said, citing how taxes are higher on cigarettes and alcohol than fruits and vegetables.

He's proposing lowering other taxes simultaneously, so the government gets the same amount, no tax hike necessary.

50% tax on everything across the board is different from differentially taxing carbon. Taxing everything at once just slows down all economic behavior at once, but putting an additional tax on carbon makes people shift their behavior to avoid that tax in particular.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com