Monday, January 23, 2012

Romney's economic adviser Mankiw: tax gasoline $2/gallon to address global climate change

Twitter / @RL_Miller: Romney's economic adviser ...

 Romney's economic adviser Mankiw: tax gasoline $2/gallon to address global change.

Four Keys to a Better Tax System — Economic View - NYTimes.com

Consider the tax on gasoline. Driving your car is associated with various adverse side effects, which economists call externalities. These include traffic congestion, accidents, local pollution and global climate change. If the tax on gasoline were higher, people would alter their behavior to drive less. They would be more likely to take public transportation, use car pools or live closer to work. The incentives they face when deciding how much to drive would more closely match the true social costs and benefits.

Economists who have added up all the externalities associated with driving conclude that a tax exceeding $2 a gallon makes sense. That would provide substantial revenue that could be used to reduce other taxes. By taxing bad things more, we could tax good things less.
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N. Gregory Mankiw is a professor of economics at Harvard. He is advising Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, in the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mindless. Stupid. Retarded. I reach for the correct label but none are sufficient.

People would be forced to drive less: and what would the 'externalities' of THAT be? Mmmm? Starting with a re-building of all cities (would large cities even be viable?) and suburbs, of course, and going on from there.

Likely of more importance would be this: some driving would be NECESSARY. In other words you will have to buy more of that more-expensive car-fuel, with money that you will NOT be spending elsewhere.

In short, you will pay much more TAX to the .gov. Period.

While at the same time the net worth of the country itself WILL be heavily damaged. Which WILL massively affect general wealth. Which WILL destroy the ability to pay taxes in the first place.

Brilliant. It seems to take a PhD in something in order to accumulate sufficient brain-damage so that you can think like a hippie: i.e. lack the ability to think past your nose.

James Sexton said...

Holy crap, how much democrat payola did that lunatic just get paid? That's massively stupid! Extra tax on fuel and climate change. Why didn't he advocate unrestricted open immigration/borders as well, then he would have hit the trifecta! All the things certain to piss off a bunch of conservatives!

papertiger said...

How long you guess til Romney drops out of the race?

This is the end. If Mitt doesn't fire this guy with prejudice, I mean literally drop kicking him for distance in front of the press...

Not even that. This guy has been Romney's adviser since at least 2006.

Mitt might as well tap Jerry Brown to be his running mate.