Global Warming Is a De-Facto Tax on the Middle Class - Living Green Magazine

A recent article at SustainableIndustries.com says that global warming and climate change are costing us money, thereby acting as an economic tax on the middle class.

The severe drought across the U.S. this year is raising corn prices, which raises operating costs for the animal factory farms, which raises the prices of food even for those of us who don’t eat factory meat.

The ongoing heat wave this summer drives up the use of air conditioners, which drives up our electric bills.  As the article points out, “The middle class had to crank up their air conditioners to preserve their health and work performance during the recent extreme heat and humidity and will suffer higher electricity bills as a result. There is even a multiplier effect where the global warming’s induced extreme heat and humidity reduces the operating efficiency of air conditioning equipment that further increases consumers’ electricity demand and electric bills.”

Of course other industrial practices also become a tax on the public when product design results in the filling up our landfills with plastic, styrofoam, and e-waste.

China, which has surpassed us as the world’s most polluting country, is still a rapidly growing country.  As the article notes, China’s emissions are the fastest growing in the world. Plus, China’s pollution is adding to the economic tax on America’s middle class. While buying “Made in the USA” is patriotic, doing so also serves to eliminate the economic tax of global warming by rewarding cleaner domestic companies.”

One clear solution is to stop the global warming tax on middle class Americans.  As the article concludes:

Art Laffer is a noted conservative economist who advanced the Reagan administration’s public policies on supply-side economics. The following quote, by Laffer, is telling regarding the economics of global warming and unsustainability:

“All I need to know is, you’re taxing something you want more of, which is income, and you’re not taxing something you arguably want less of, which is CO2. Change what you tax.”

Read the full article at http://www.sustainableindustries.com/articles/2012/07/hot-issue?utm_source=Sustainable+Energy&utm_campaign=b11f035d49-Sustainable_Industries_Digest_05_03_20125_1_2012&utm_medium=email

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Tags: china, climate change, corn production, economic tax, global warming, greenhouse gasses, pollution

Category: Climate Change, Featured Articles

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