[extropy-chat] Extinctions

[Anders Sandberg]

Damien Sullivan wrote:
> Governments don't need money for incentives; they can apply taxes.  If
> oil burners had to pay for the cost of removing or sequestering their
> CO2 then alternatives would probably look a lot more attractive.
> Governments can create markets.

But what are their incentives for that? Unfortunately, the reward system
even in well functioning democracies are somewhat perverse, rewarding
grand gestures appearing to do something, the formation of dependent voter
groups and all the other problems of public choice economics. What are the
incentives for governments to set a correct carbon tax, when they can use
the tax for so many other useful things than just pay for sequestration?

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University