Climate change could mean the extinction of our species

[russtafa]

A tax is considered a burden.... High prices are also considered a burden. Oil is a finite resource. And will get more expensive. Plus India and China are going to have greater energy needs -- and this'll boost the price. To put it mildly, well, we're in a pickle.
The reason for a so-called carbon tax is to raise prices on bad things. Like pollution. I mean, you get in your car it creates congestion, air pollution and higher prices at the pump. Not taking into account the long term consequences. It's called an externality. It's a market transaction whereby a third party doesn't consent. You know, I get in my car. Start it. Drive it. What I don't take into account is the air pollution that I'm responsible for. That places a health burden on other people.
So, again, taxes are considered a burden. We could, well, drastically reduce income taxes. Considered a good thing. (That's Ron Paul's proposal. Ya know, it's your income, you worked for it. It's yours. Hence a 0 percent income tax. Is that a good idea? Well, how do we pay for roads, bridges, highways, schools, a police force etc., etc., etc. Do people really want a private police force?
I mean, you can and maybe should address all these issues through popular will or democracy. Ya know, do Australians want a carbon tax. Vote on it. Let the people decide. I'm not entirely sure if I trust people -- ha ha! But, well, that should be the basis for a policy decision like a carbon tax. Let the people vote, let the people decide.)

well Ben it will bring down the government and other governments around the world will be watching this and taking note

[hippifried]

well Ben it will bring down the government and other governments around the world will be watching this and taking note

We instituted a carbon tax in the early '70s. All the doomsayers came crawling out of the woodwork then too. What actually happened was that we got scrubbers in nearly every coal fired power plant & other high stack industries, & stopped most of the acid rain that was killing the forests in Canada. But of course if you think it's going to bring down civilization as we know it, I guess we should all just stop everything we're doing & listen to you.

[russtafa]

We instituted a carbon tax in the early '70s. All the doomsayers came crawling out of the woodwork then too. What actually happened was that we got scrubbers in nearly every coal fired power plant & other high stack industries, & stopped most of the acid rain that was killing the forests in Canada. But of course if you think it's going to bring down civilization as we know it, I guess we should all just stop everything we're doing & listen to you.

exactly hippie always listen to a bloke with short hair .Hey didn't the previous Canadian govt fall over a carbon tax issue?

[hippifried]

Hey didn't the previous Canadian govt fall over a carbon tax issue?

Couldn't tell ya. I'm not Canadian. I don't even know who their PM is & don't care. I'm pretty sure Trudeau was running the show back then.

[russtafa]

good on you hippie don't even know what happens across your borders .i am sure most Americans are more aware than you.is it just a hippie thing?

[hippifried]

good on you hippie don't even know what happens across your borders .i am sure most Americans are more aware than you.is it just a hippie thing?

I doubt it. Maybe if they look it up, but I don't care enough. Canadian politics are pretty much inconsequential to me or most Americans. I guess that's why it gets no media coverage at all down here. Same goes for the upside downers. That's you, right? I don't know or care who your PM is either. It has no effect on me whatsoever. I only know who Brown & Sarkozy are becase they get covered. Other than that, the only honchos we hear about are the ones we're demonizing this week. The rest are just there in case we need somebody to turn our attention to. Y'all don't count for anything.

[russtafa]

I doubt it. Maybe if they look it up, but I don't care enough. Canadian politics are pretty much inconsequential to me or most Americans. I guess that's why it gets no media coverage at all down here. Same goes for the upside downers. That's you, right? I don't know or care who your PM is either. It has no effect on me whatsoever. I only know who Brown & Sarkozy are becase they get covered. Other than that, the only honchos we hear about are the ones we're demonizing this week. The rest are just there in case we need somebody to turn our attention to. Y'all don't count for anything.

i suppose that's why you are a hippie because you know sweet fuck all and you count sweet fuck all.Hippies don't count in Australia because they are like abo's and just pick their nose or pick their arse and that's it

[hippifried]

i suppose that's why you are a hippie because you know sweet fuck all and you count sweet fuck all.Hippies don't count in Australia because they are like abo's and just pick their nose or pick their arse and that's it

Doesn't matter, because you don't know me. You don't know my country. You certainly don't know what hippies are, ever were, or what the movement was about. We changed the mindset of the world in 5 short years. What have you ever done? What? You think I must be stupid because I don't give a shit about the local politics in insignificant places? I don't know or care who the mayor of Podunk Iowa is either. Do you? Why not? They have more world significance than Australia. They produce food for the world, & they're part of America. You don't count. All y'all have is beaches, & you wouldn't even know how to surf if it wasn't for us.

[Yvonne183]

Doesn't matter, because you don't know me. You don't know my country. You certainly don't know what hippies are, ever were, or what the movement was about. We changed the mindset of the world in 5 short years. What have you ever done? What? You think I must be stupid because I don't give a shit about the local politics in insignificant places? I don't know or care who the mayor of Podunk Iowa is either. Do you? Why not? They have more world significance than Australia. They produce food for the world, & they're part of America. You don't count. All y'all have is beaches, & you wouldn't even know how to surf if it wasn't for us.

Some of those hippies like Jerry Rubin made it big on Wall Street. Ha ha. Hippies are the same as everyone else, they only look out for their own self interests of greed and money.

[Stavros]

Small point Yvonne -he may have looked like a Hippy and smoked a lot of dope and lived in a communal-type pad with the Dead in the background, but Rubin was actually -indeed, literally- a Yippie -founder member of the Youth International Party, and for that reason more politically focused than those hippies who were too stoned most of the time to know what day it was. Although he was part of the Chicago protest in 1968 for which he was arrested, you could argue that by entering the system even as part of its political fringe, he was already in the penumbra of capitalism, and was an early enthusiast for Apple and so on. Pure hippies, have been at the forefront of a counter-cultural movement which included politics but so much else, from environmental activism to the occasionally profit-inducing restoration of otherwise lost crafts in textiles, pottery, jewellery and so on. Contrary to what Russtafa might think, they weren't all layabouts and dope-heads, or devotees of Charles Manson. But as for the nut cutlets, flapjacks and sandals, well I guess its not to everyone's taste, but variety is the spice of life, and the world in the 1960s was also a lot of fun, and not just about protests and riots.