[GRRN] Greening California

RecycleWorlds (anderson@msn.fullfeed.com)
Tue, 3 Aug 1999 09:09:13 -0500


Gary asked for comment on the Hamond article proposing to use taxes to
guide personal decisions into more constructive paths.

Certainly, in theory, this could work substantially better than direct
regulatory approaches.

Unfortunately, my experience with the political arena indicates that
economists who LOVE this approach should not be allowed out of their ivory
towers (Jeff Morris and I excepted, of course), even to go to the bathroom.

That's because tax laws are written by the tax committees, late at night,
in the backroom, out of the public's sights in complex tomes that no one
can make any sense of. Because the stakes of their decisions are so HUGE,
that is where 90% (or whatever) of the corporate contributions are focused,
making just about every person on those committees CORRUPT, with one or two
noble exceptions.

Those committees, then, are the one place where we have the very LEAST
influence.

Sure regulations have been correctly branded as command and control and
have all of the limitations that attach to them.

But at least their visible and so much more impactable by the public than
tax laws.
____________________________________
Peter Anderson
RecycleWorlds Consulting
4513 Vernon Blvd. Ste. 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Phone:(608) 231-1100/Fax: (608) 233-0011
E-mail:recycle@msn.fullfeed.com