Thereisalwaysaneasysolutiontoeveryhumanproblem—.docx

“There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.” H. L. MENCKEN,?“The Divine Afflatus,”?A Mencken Chrestomathy,?chapter 25, p. 443 (1949 In politics there are often pressures to “do something” about a perceived problem even if we do not know what is the correct something, what is the correct amount of something, or even if doing something is the correct thing to do?. A carbon tax may be an example—we do not know if it is the correct thing to do, what the “correct” amount should be, nor whether it will improve on doing nothing. Although there was almost no mention of climate change legislation during the 2012presidential election, proponents of carbon taxes are circulating plans to implement them nationally and even internationally. One example is a forum at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in November 2012 cosponsored with the Brookings Institution, International Monetary Fund, and Resources for the Future. The panelists proposed carbon taxes not just as a way to reduce CO2 production, but also as a fix for the US fiscal system. Also in November 2012, Royal Dutch Shell and more than 100 companies released a request for “a clear, transparent, and unambiguous price on carbon emissions. ” The requested pricing system is necessary, the companies say, in order to “deliver substantial greenhouse gas emissions reductions by mid-century. Morales, Alex, “Shell, Unilever lead 100 companies calling for CO2 Price. Bloomberg Businessweek, 19 November, 2012. Retrieved 31 December, 2012 from the World Wide Web at /news/2012-11-18/shell-edf-lead-100-companies-calling-for-carbon-price ” Prince Charles’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change coordinated the statement. Choosing Political Actions Most of us, including our politicians, fear change. Political scientist Aaron Wildavsky wrote about that fear in his book, Searching for Safety Wildavsky, A. (1988). Searching for safety. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers. . He made the