What measures are needed to ensure that we take full advantage of these opportunities?
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One thought on “What measures are needed to ensure that we take full advantage of these opportunities?”
Paul Milne
Tax incentives will probably be the biggest way to ensure that appropriately sized enterprises are rewarded and carbon-guzzling enterprises are down-sized. The flip-side of incentivising desirable behaviour is to dis-incentivise undesirable behaviour. This is one lesson politicians will need to learn and learn fast, if we are going to make real progress before it’s too late. This means making petrol/diesel driven vehicles too expensive to operate, whilst at the same time making the alternatives quick, easy and cheap to use and operate. A tax on “primary” goods, and by that I mean raw resources, particularly non-renewable one, and a tax break on recycled or renewable goods, would “encourage” manufacturers to turn their efforts to reusing and recycling. Also, local income tax moratorium on locally produced goods might make the difference to the person making that tough decision in the shop about whether to buy local. Oh yes, Schumaker’s idea of the government taking an equal share issue on corporations over a certain size instead of taxing them would be a disincentive to companies that might want to grow too large to be truly local, and also a source of ongoing revenue from those that can only operate on a grander scale.There’s more, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Tax incentives will probably be the biggest way to ensure that appropriately sized enterprises are rewarded and carbon-guzzling enterprises are down-sized. The flip-side of incentivising desirable behaviour is to dis-incentivise undesirable behaviour. This is one lesson politicians will need to learn and learn fast, if we are going to make real progress before it’s too late. This means making petrol/diesel driven vehicles too expensive to operate, whilst at the same time making the alternatives quick, easy and cheap to use and operate. A tax on “primary” goods, and by that I mean raw resources, particularly non-renewable one, and a tax break on recycled or renewable goods, would “encourage” manufacturers to turn their efforts to reusing and recycling. Also, local income tax moratorium on locally produced goods might make the difference to the person making that tough decision in the shop about whether to buy local. Oh yes, Schumaker’s idea of the government taking an equal share issue on corporations over a certain size instead of taxing them would be a disincentive to companies that might want to grow too large to be truly local, and also a source of ongoing revenue from those that can only operate on a grander scale.There’s more, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.