#pigouviantaxes — Public Fediverse posts

If you want good policy, there's decades of actual literature from #PoliticalScience and #Economics on what actually works.

You want less total plastic? Tax plastic by weight. Want fewer plastic items? Tax plastic by item. Want both? #Tax both.

#PigouvianTaxes actually work!

Tax #bioplastic _less_ than plastic. Because it actually causes less harm.

You know what you can do with that money? Compensate #poor people who are disproportionally impacted by the tax. Though, say, #grocery #subsidies.

I find it really hard to believe that our #politicians don't know any of this. I believe that, instead, the just care a ton more about the #optics of their policies than they care about the #environment or about #poverty.

When #polemics substitutes for #policy it dooms us all.

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