The myth of the job creator. In their drive to restore some sort of economic equity to our society, decrease our deficit and restore some semblance of balance to the federal budget, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have repeatedly called for closing corporate tax loopholes and increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Poll after poll has shown that the American public, and even a strong cross section of Republicans, look favorably upon this idea. And who could blame them? At a time when the rich are getting ever richer while everyone else is wondering how they will keep their heads above water and figure out how to pay for college for their kids, it only makes moral and logical sense that those who are well off should make a little bit of a larger contribution to bring out nation's economy and people back from the brink.
Not that one will ever hear any Republican acknowledging this. As a matter of fact, one would be lucky to hear a Republican discussing the idea of taxing the wealthy at all. Energy Production Costs at Root of Government Belt Tightening. Protestors of austerity measures in Athens by Eric Zencey Originally posted in The Daly News The government of Minnesota has shut down thanks to a $5 billion budget gap. Wisconsin public employees have been de-unionized so their salaries and benefits can be cut to close a budget gap. Though not a single politician or mainstream economic analyst has ever made the connection, the new worldwide austerity in public spending traces to a physical cause, as measured by change in EROI — energy return on energy invested.
Even more troubling than oil’s 20:1 global average is the figure for new oil, just 5 to 1. Wind and other renewable energy sources offer returns in the seventeen-to-one range — still a nice income flow, but nothing like the flood we once got from oil. Conservatives in Washington and elsewhere insist that we can no longer afford the level of governmental services we’ve become accustomed to. We’ve begun to recognize that we can’t borrow infinitely against our financial future.
Economicgrowth. Trade-Off. Water quality trading. Ecological Economics: The Case for Carbon Taxes and Against Cap- McCain on cap-and-trade. Krugman explains public goods and clima. Gore Derangement Syndrome: It’s in the interest of most people (and especially their descendants) that somebody do something to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but each individual would like that somebody to be somebody else.
Leave it up to the free market, and in a few generations Florida will be underwater. The solution to such conflicts between self-interest and the common good is to provide individuals with an incentive to do the right thing. In this case, people have to be given a reason to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, either by requiring that they pay a tax on emissions or by requiring that they buy emission permits, which has pretty much the same effects as an emissions tax. One reason for this post is informational, the other is inspirational. The blog giveth and the blog taketh awa. Friday morning I dropped a post-bomb about how I'd been implicitly uninvited to speak at a conference (see below).
A bunch of us had fun with it during the morning hours (check out the comments to this post). Then I took a lunch break and picked up my daughter after preschool. When I got back to my office my voice mail had a message asking me if I needed any other information for the conference. Wha? I called back, said I assumed I'd been canceled, was assured that I wasn't canceled, etc. Jeez, I'd made other plans (a softball doubleheader) but I didn't want to be a no-show. 1:00: find out I'm expected in Richmond, Ky by 4:00 on Sat. Here is the rest of my agenda: 4:00-5:00: My presentation (Download Whitehead.042007.ppt) 6:00: Head back to Boone! Someone remind me and I'll post the email that made me think I was canceled. Originally posted Friday, April 21 in the a.m Both Tim and I have had many new experiences and opportunities resulting from this blog.