Interesting, sudden crunch forces sudden realisation ... how sudden will be the weaning from cheap oil for the world as a whole, you wonder ... the change-over from wood to coal was gradual, from whale oil to mineral oil and from coal to oil somewhat less so, these were all upward switches that made great economic sense, the new fuel became cheaper, easier to produce as well as being more concentrated and easier to transport/store/burn ... now it's different, hard to imagine anything cheaper coming along, the percentage of income going to energy will rise, pretty certainly
We could prepare for this, mitigate it to some degree, and accomplish other great good at the same time, by eliminating capital gains taxes, value-added taxes, and say income tax on the first 100k, replacing the revenue of these with a meaningfully hefty tax on all fossil fuels consumed and/or produced within a country ... much easier to collect as well, fewer points of collection ... i used to think maybe a hundred bucks per barrel of oil equivalent, but in light of recent crude prices it likely should start out with more
This would radically cut support for islamist/halliburtonist terrorism, help to get more out of what cheap high-grade energy we have left, make a more functional tax system [consumption taxes being less harmful net net than penalisation of income], and kick off the biggest longest tech boom ever |
