Comments on: British Proposal Calls For Orwellian Personal Carbon Allowances

By: Yazi

Yazi — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:14:58 +0000

The environment is important, but anything can be taken too far. Worry more about polluting industries, and less about whether John Smith should be allowed to buy an occasional plane ticket for vacation. If they want to tax gasoline further, I could see that, but this is ridiculous.

The UK is digging its grave deeper every day. Life will soon enough be so miserable, between the extremes of political correctness and the constant monitoring of people that anyone who can leave will. And should, or throw the bastards out of Parliament.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:32:50 +0000

i wish it would work, but it relies on people being moral,
paeple aren't, they are savage territorial animals with a thin coat of civilization on the surface.

By: tonyviner

tonyviner — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:38:43 +0000

Who's to say that there cannot be rewards for doing good in a socialist society? The only reason that it won't work is because the people with the abilities will not make it work.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:20:52 +0000

if you see a day when profit isnt the driving force of business you will see the end of innovation,
rewards drive work, lessen the rewards and people will do just enough to get by, that is why socialism cant work, people will do just enough to avoid punishment.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:44:36 +0000

looks like another law that will only really effect the poor, the wealthy can buy their way out and the poor will be wondering which they can scrimp, fuel, heat, or lights.

By: tonyviner

tonyviner — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:40:48 +0000

You have to admire how every time something is meant to sound bad the word 'Orwellian' is tossed in front of it. Many things about government may indeed be Orwellian but this is not one of them, anything that could potentially help the environment should be considered as nothing more than that, 'something that could help the environment'. As for the detrimental impact on business, so what? Soon will come a point where profits are not as important as the physical world which we live and for many people it is as such now.

By: emperorreagan

emperorreagan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:27:35 +0000

All the carbon proposals have the same net effect of making the end user pay for pollution of the products they use. I think this implementation is probably a bad idea because it's cumbersome – I think a tax is the simplest way to introduce the cost of carbon into products. Carbon credits, exchanges, and the like just seem to be another scam for the financial industry to make money on nothing.

I also think it should be generally extended to all forms of pollution, not just carbon, so the true costs of the products we use is no longer hidden by government subsidies to clean up after industry.