So I was looking at the Edison Electrical interview with Elon & JB, and there is something that Elon said that struck a real chord for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nMcJxA3lto#
54:27 into it.
"The fundamental issue with incentives and subsidies when it comes to renewable power is that we've been unwilling as a country to establish a tax on carbon. If you could establish a tax on carbon then no incentives or subsidies would be necessary - cause the market system would work as it should. I'm a big believer in the market system - the market system is just basically the collective will of the people - that's all.
As long as that's not something that's causing an error in the pricing system, as there is because of the unpriced externality, which is the CO2 capacity of the oceans and atmosphere, the market system works very well. But since we've thus far been unwilling to place a tax on carbon - and simply price it correctly, is really what it would amount to - there are all these indirect mechanisms - they're klunky - and they don't always have the best outcome - they end up trying to subsidize sustainable energy instead of putting the right price on unsustainable energy."
This is something I've been wondering about for years - if I had a time machine and could do 1 thing, it would be to go back to when the respective constitutions of the countries in the world was written (or at least the U.S. constitution), and convince them to add a clause to the constitution that reads something like this:
"The seller of any good or service sold is responsible for returning the raw materials used to create that good or service to its origins, at the end of the useful life of the product. If the seller is unwilling or unable to return the raw materials of the product to its origins, government shall raise a tax on the sale of the product to be used for collecting, disposing and returning said raw material to its origins."
All other regulations would then stem from this one.
Do you think it would have worked? Or would it have left us in the pre-industrial age, unable to make any further progress?
Do you think it would work now? Ignoring the fact that it would be pretty much impossible to pass now, but I think enforced cradle-to-grave pricing is the silver bullet that can solve pretty much all of the environmental issues that we've encountered to date. (Elon seems to agree at least on the carbon side.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nMcJxA3lto#
54:27 into it.
"The fundamental issue with incentives and subsidies when it comes to renewable power is that we've been unwilling as a country to establish a tax on carbon. If you could establish a tax on carbon then no incentives or subsidies would be necessary - cause the market system would work as it should. I'm a big believer in the market system - the market system is just basically the collective will of the people - that's all.
As long as that's not something that's causing an error in the pricing system, as there is because of the unpriced externality, which is the CO2 capacity of the oceans and atmosphere, the market system works very well. But since we've thus far been unwilling to place a tax on carbon - and simply price it correctly, is really what it would amount to - there are all these indirect mechanisms - they're klunky - and they don't always have the best outcome - they end up trying to subsidize sustainable energy instead of putting the right price on unsustainable energy."
This is something I've been wondering about for years - if I had a time machine and could do 1 thing, it would be to go back to when the respective constitutions of the countries in the world was written (or at least the U.S. constitution), and convince them to add a clause to the constitution that reads something like this:
"The seller of any good or service sold is responsible for returning the raw materials used to create that good or service to its origins, at the end of the useful life of the product. If the seller is unwilling or unable to return the raw materials of the product to its origins, government shall raise a tax on the sale of the product to be used for collecting, disposing and returning said raw material to its origins."
All other regulations would then stem from this one.
Do you think it would have worked? Or would it have left us in the pre-industrial age, unable to make any further progress?
Do you think it would work now? Ignoring the fact that it would be pretty much impossible to pass now, but I think enforced cradle-to-grave pricing is the silver bullet that can solve pretty much all of the environmental issues that we've encountered to date. (Elon seems to agree at least on the carbon side.)