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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

yellowarmadillos: Freedom of Assembly

yellowarmadillos: Freedom of Assembly
Posted by KW at 8:49 AM

2 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 4, 2011 at 12:15 AM

    I thought her article was very interesting.
    I believe that climate change is a problem.

    That being said it does not follow so clearly what should be done about it. It seems that Ms. Klein arrives pretty quickly to her solution to the environmental problem – get rid of capitalism. It seems to me that, at least, you would want to try a serious carbon tax first. And it is a bit disconcerting to those on the right (and to this centrist) that, as she says, the solution that she proposes just happens to involve the complete destruction of the economic position of her political opposition on the right. What a wonderful coincidence! Never let a crises go to waste.

    I certainly agree that those who cause the damage should pay for the prevention/cleanup. I remember, when I first heard of our emissions requirements for cars, wondering why they didn't just tax the causer by the amount of the damage. Taxing gasoline usage more would have increased the demand for, and caused the car companies to build, smaller cars. Europe and Japan did that. Then their companies built smaller cars. What happened in America? The government made emission rules for cars and then the car companies built vans and SUVS and called them “trucks” so they were exempt from those rules. One doesn’t have to be a right wing nutcase to recognize that not every “collective solution” is a good idea.

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  2. KWDecember 4, 2011 at 3:37 PM

    Wayne, Ms Klein does not say we should "get rid of capitalism" but only that it needs to be regulated and controlled because of the amount of planning necessary to deal with climate change.

    A "serious carbon tax" is a wonderful idea, but one that would be seen as socialist, I suspect, by the big money corporate leaders. I am not sure that it is fair to say that the author calls for "the complete destruction of the economic position of her political opposition on the right," but I feel sure that any serious attempt to deal with climate change on the scale necessary for it to be effective would be seen as such an attack because it would have to take out of corporate hands the ability to control the legislature through such devices as real public financing of campaigns.

    Will the private sector be able to deal with the massive climate changes bringing rises in sea levels, increased flooding and drought and widespread population movements?

    I would like to see someone on this blog try to answer this questions in the affirmation, without simply writing off the coming crisis as a plot by leftists who want to destroy capitalism?

    I don't want to destroy capitalism, but I sure as hell want it to be controlled--in the interest of justice, world peace, and human survival?

    As long as the monied interests in this country and the politicians who do their bidding continue to deny climate change, in the face of much scientific, indeed empirical, evidence to the contrary, we simply cannot assume that the Right in this country is behaving rationally.

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