Herman E. Daly
Politics
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It's a matter of, "what are our goals?" Now if we really want to aim for sustainability, I think it's so simple what we could do. We could have a very, very strong carbon tax which would reduce the rate at which we use oil and coal and would give a big boost to the development of alternative technologies. At the same time it would capture an enormous amount of revenue which we could then return to people in the form of abolishing the worst taxes: the payroll tax, other regressive taxes. We have to raise public revenue somehow, so instead of taxing value added, that which we want more of, why don't we tax that to which value was added and which is really scarce - resources - and we want to use less of, put the tax on that, raise the revenue, redistribute that revenue in the interest of equality or greater equality. I mean, this seems to me, a very reasonable policy which could be done but there is, as I see it, too many interests whose short-run profitability would stand in the way. Well, this is a long-afforded persuasion and teaching, I think.
08.05.2007,
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Speaker
Herman E. Daly is an ecological economist and professor at the Maryland School of Public Affairs. Prior to his work at the Maryland School of Public Affairs, he worked at the World Bank, where he was Senior Economist in the Environment Department, helping to develop policy guidelines related to sustainable development. While there, he was engaged in environmental operations work in Latin America. He is co-founder and associate editor of the journal, Ecological Economics. His interest in economic development, population, resources, and environment has resulted in over a hundred articles as well as numerous books. His awards include the Grawemeyer Award for ideas for improving World Order, of the Honorary Right Livelihood Award, the Heineken Prize for Environmental Science from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Sophie Prize awarded by Norway.