Global User Pays II
Following on from an idea posted last week - that users of fossil fuels pay for the privilege of sinking humanity further into a hole from which it will never be able to dig itself out - why not broaden it from the suggested areas of
1. Air travel; and
2. Pay per use of power hungry AI services;
to more categories, eg:
3. An extra levy on fossil fuel that you put into your car; and
4. A surcharge on purchase of any items that are imported, with a higher tax for items purchased from further away (say, one tenth of a percent per kilogram for each 100 kilometres it needs to be transported - this can be done now with super computing)?
- with all proceeds going to a global climate change kitty to cover the cost of replacing fossil fuel grids with renewable grids.
When that is achieved, the levies come off.
There would be a lot of unfairness in such a scheme, yes that is true. But it is much much less fair to hand to future generations a lemon planet, instead of our beautiful mother earth.
It is time for this generation of adults to be brave and do things that are not comfortable for ourselves. Note the above proposals would barely affect your lifestyle. But is there an incumbent politician on the planet brave enough to propose 'user pays' policies like this? And are you brave enough to vote for it?
These are the questions that will define humanity's future.
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