Individual Carbon Trading

[Humphrey]

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/st ... 38,00.html

Ok, so i'm interested to hear people's views on Labour's new plan to re-introduce rationing. My view is that everyone has gone stark raving mad!. Why is there no mention in this article, for example that the likely cost of introducing such a scheme would be astronomical (at least 20 billion). If this dribble ever becomes law I am going to have to find a rock somewhere and start my own country.

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http://www.livejournal.com/users/humphrey_clarke/

[Mr Comedy]

Quoting Humphrey from 12:30, 22nd Jan 2007
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/st ... 38,00.html

Ok, so i'm interested to hear people's views on Labour's new plan to re-introduce rationing. My view is that everyone has gone stark raving mad!. Why is there no mention in this article, for example that the likely cost of introducing such a scheme would be astronomical (at least 20 billion). If this dribble ever becomes law I am going to have to find a rock somewhere and start my own country.

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http://www.livejournal.com/users/humphrey_clarke/

Another brilliant scheme by the government to tax us much more. If this goes through I'll relocate to a different country, as would 95% of the UK finance industry. That's going to benefit the economy, isn't it Mr Milliband?

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"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

[The Bitter Historian]

Erm... it's not a bad idea, perse, but the idea of 'identical point rations' is a sort of stupid one, on the basis that those who can afford foregin holidays and big cars can probably afford to pay the extra. And some people will need to use more credits. So if this was calculated for, there'd be a lot more expensive departments to deal with this...

... oh dear. A good idea in principle but I can see it being a nightmare to sort out.

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http://bitterhistorian.blogspot.com

Life. St Andrews. Budgeting. Some history. Mostly bitterness.

[bdw]

That article was from July last year - has there been any update on this or was the proposal dropped quietly?

[Humphrey]

It’s very telling that this idea was conjured up by a writer. It’s a very ‘blue skies’ project and no-one seems to have asked the basic questions.

1. What would be the cost of introducing a carbon trading system for 65 million people? – ID cards will cost 18 billion, this will likely be much higher, over 20 billion.

2. What would be the cost of the accompanying bureaucracy it would take to monitor and administrate this system. – Again – probably billions.

3. What would be the likely impact on business if consumers are curtailed by carbon allowances.

4. What would be the impact on the economy from a system which discriminates unfairly against those who have to commute long distances to work.

5. What is to stop whole sectors like the finance industry from simply re-locating to Dubai in order to avoid such a restrictive system.

6. Won’t the rich still be able to simply buy up carbon allowances willy nilly, meaning that you still have a system that discriminates unfairly against the poor – thus defeating the entire point of adopting this policy over green taxes.


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http://www.livejournal.com/users/humphrey_clarke/

[Senethro]

Christ. While a nice idea in theory I suppose, its completely unworkable. You'd need some kind of omni-present computer god that is part of the roads, buildings and probably even the clothes of the country to make it work. We just don't have the tools to organise this kind of information.

[Humphrey]

Quoting bdw from 13:38, 22nd Jan 2007
That article was from July last year - has there been any update on this or was the proposal dropped quietly?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6167671.stm

Its at the feasibility stage.

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http://www.livejournal.com/users/humphrey_clarke/

[bdw]

Very interesting. You're right, Humphrey - rolling this out would be an exorbitant process. To keep costs down, they'd surely have to piggy-back this onto any eventual ID card introduction and administration scheme. I doubt that the introduction of a taxation element to the other nefarious aspects of the ID card proposal would be a vote-winner for the ID card, though.

Can't say I'm too pleased about the idea of either getting hammered by a statutory fine if I exceed my credit allocation or being taxed at, presumably, full whack for any income realised by selling the balance of credits if I stay within the thresholds (and the first article said that these would be sold to a central bank so there would be limited arbitrage opportunities anyway).

[Mr Comedy]

If the government wants to do anything this stupid, I'll relocate myself and my team to Dubai and we'll work from there.
Weather will be better there too.

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"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

[La Jouissance]

Quoting Mr Comedy from 15:10, 22nd Jan 2007
If the government wants to do anything this stupid, I'll relocate myself and my team to Dubai and we'll work from there.
Weather will be better there too.

Can I be the first to predict much wailing and gnashing of teeth along with a rending of garments should that come to pass...

I'm guessing (and forgive me if I'm wrong) that you don't own the business that you work for and that this would be the decision of either the shareholders or senior executives?

[Mr Comedy]

Quoting La Jouissance from 20:18, 22nd Jan 2007
Can I be the first to predict much wailing and gnashing of teeth along with a rending of garments should that come to pass...

I'm guessing (and forgive me if I'm wrong) that you don't own the business that you work for and that this would be the decision of either the shareholders or senior executives?

No, unfortunately you're wrong. I head up the commodities business and we are looking to expand it globally - I've already been told by the business if I want to relocate to another of our offices and build it from there I can.

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"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung