Crawl Across the Ocean

Monday, January 05, 2009

About that Green Shift

As a follow up to my post below, I wonder if Stephen Harper read this New York Times Op-Ed by two prominent right-wing economists calling for the U.S. to adopt a green shift and wondered why his ideological allies were trying to destroy the economy of their own country, or why they referred to the green shift policy Harper had demonized so thoroughly as a 'no-brainer' or why they referred to Harper's own chosen policy as a 'an enormous, hidden, tax increase'.

Update: Credit to Gillian Steward in the Star for picking up the same point. Maybe there is hope for the print media after all ... nah.

Update 2: I almost forgot, in addition to destroying the American economy, the Green Shift proposed by the right wing American economists in the New York Times will also threaten American national unity.

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3 Comments:

  • Declan,

    I assume you've seen Greg Mankiw's Pigou club down south? Looks like he has an increasingly impressive roster of members who support some sort of Greenshifting, or at least the pricing of carbon.

    Maybe something up North would be useful.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:12 AM  

  • I don't think it's helpful to apply the labels 'left-wing' or 'right-wing' to these ideas. It makes it too easy to dismiss them.

    "Greg Mankiw is in favour of carbon taxes, so they are are clearly a right-wing USian Republican instrument of EEEVIL."

    "Stéphane Dion and Elisabeth May are in favour of carbon taxes, so they are are clearly a left-wing radical loony instrument of EEEVIL."

    "Stephen Harper and Jack Layton are in favour of cap-and-trade, so ..." okay, I got nothing.

    Anyway the point is: attaching political labels to these positions isn't helpful.

    By Blogger Stephen Gordon, at 3:56 PM  

  • Olaf - at this point, I think we're stuck waiting until the U.S. does something, at which point we will likely follow along.

    Still, a Northern Pigou Club certainly couldn't hurt - count me in - oh wait, you wanted an *impressive* roster of support...

    Stephen - yes, that was my point exactly.

    By Blogger Declan, at 6:39 PM  

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