Green New Deal

[mspohr]

We can’t build our way out of the environmental crisis | George Monbiot

Rule 1 is that the primary purpose of new infrastructure is to enrich the people who commission or build it.

Rule 4 is that in countries with high biodiversity, infrastructure is the major driver of habitat destruction.

Rule 8 is that environmental change cannot be delivered only by infrastructure. To be effective, it needs to be accompanied by social change: travelling less as well as travelling better, for example. We need to develop not only new railways and tramlines and wind farms and power lines, but a new way of life.

 

[h2ofun]

We can’t build our way out of the environmental crisis | George Monbiot

Rule 1 is that the primary purpose of new infrastructure is to enrich the people who commission or build it.

Rule 4 is that in countries with high biodiversity, infrastructure is the major driver of habitat destruction.

Rule 8 is that environmental change cannot be delivered only by infrastructure. To be effective, it needs to be accompanied by social change: travelling less as well as travelling better, for example. We need to develop not only new railways and tramlines and wind farms and power lines, but a new way of life.

I am so glad I will be dead when all you younger folks get to have fun with this lowered qualify of life. I expect there might not even be a USA anymore, like living under China control?

 

[mspohr]

I am so glad I will be dead when all you younger folks get to have fun with this lowered qualify of life. I expect there might not even be a USA anymore, like living under China control?

Most people assume that leading a less consumptive, less environmentally damaging lifestyle will be "lower quality".
I'm a firm believer in Fully Automated Luxury Communism so look for the advantages of having to earn and spend less of environmentally damaging goods and activities and being able to spend more time on quality activities.

Amazon.com

Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto​

Amazon.com: Walkaway: A Novel eBook : Doctorow, Cory: Kindle Store

Walkaway: A Novel - Kindle edition by Doctorow, Cory. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Walkaway: A Novel.

www.amazon.com

Walkaway - Cory Doctorow

 

[navguy12]

I am so glad I will be dead when all you younger folks get to have fun with this lowered qualify of life. I expect there might not even be a USA anymore, like living under China control?

We are living with poorer quality of life right now.

Until 22 summers ago, the requirements for our central air conditioning system amounted to less than 10 nights and zero days a year.

This year we will be somewhere around 60 nights and 20 days (where indoor temp rises above 25c).

 

[JRP3]

I am so glad I will be dead when all you younger folks get to have fun with this lowered qualify of life.

We'll all do better without dinosaurs holding us back.

 

[h2ofun]

We'll all do better without dinosaurs holding us back.

yep, have fun, we do not like snowflakes.

 

[eevee-fan]

We are living with poorer quality of life right now.

Until 22 summers ago, the requirements for our central air conditioning system amounted to less than 10 nights and zero days a year.

This year we will be somewhere around 60 nights and 20 days (where indoor temp rises above 25c).

TX and FL governors are doing very well reducing the quality of life for its residents.

 

[JRP3]

yep, have fun, we do not like snowflakes.

You're the one bitching and moaning about progress and change. Nothing more snowflake than that.

 

[nwdiver]

I am so glad I will be dead when all you younger folks get to have fun with this lowered qualify of life.

​

??? I don't think my quality of life is any lower by missing the smell of gasoline every time I refuel my car. It's enhanced really. What do you think the quality of life is like in New Orleans in September with no air conditioning?

Transmission tower destroyed by Ida likely to complicate power restoration in New Orleans, experts say​

Hardening all our infrastructure against storms super-charged by our pathetic addiction to fools fuel isn't going to be cheap. Why not tax fools fuel to help pay for mitigating the damage caused by fools fuel?

 

[jimm01]

​

??? I don't think my quality of life is any lower by missing the smell of gasoline every time I refuel my car. It's enhanced really. What do you think the quality of life is like in New Orleans in September with no air conditioning?

Transmission tower destroyed by Ida likely to complicate power restoration in New Orleans, experts say​

Hardening all our infrastructure against storms super-charged by our pathetic addiction to fools fuel isn't going to be cheap. Why not tax fools fuel to help pay for mitigating the damage caused by fools fuel?

Then there's the ground-level ozone, it's on my training table.

 

[jimm01]

The age of neoliberalism is ending in America. What will replace it? | Gary Gerstle

The promise of neoliberalism could not survive the economic wreckage of 2008-09. Millions lost jobs and homes. The economic inequality long characterizing the neoliberal world now widened further, as governments did more to bail out the investing classes than those who lived by wages alone. Many among the latter began to lose faith in neoliberalism and then in democratic government, the latter now accused of exploiting “the people,” either through gross economic mismanagement or through complicity in maintaining a system ostensibly committed to popular rule but in reality rigged to favor the “best” over the rest.

Can Biden nevertheless pull off a New Deal for the 21st century, appropriately festooned in 50 shades of climate-friendly green? The odds are against him. But Vegas oddsmakers (and their pollster soulmates) have shown themselves to be shaky guides to political behavior during this tumultuous era. Biden has had two big policy successes – the vaccines rollout and the nearly $2tn dollar American Rescue Plan. He needs two more, likely to be a conventional infrastructure plan passed with bipartisan support, and then a second, unconventional infrastructure plan that is both green and focused on “social” rather than physical infrastructure, passed through reconciliation. If, as a result, the economy begins to hum; if the American landscape begins to bloom with new roads, bridges, rail lines, and recharging stations; if hope in an American future thus rebounds; and if the Democrats can find 50 (or even 20) versions of Stacey Abrams, each able to make the Democratic party the force it became in Georgia in 2020: then Biden will have a shot at beating the oddsmakers, and at giving America a political order that many would be proud to call progressive.

Coronavirus glaringly exposed our institutional lack of preparation, what Beck called our “organised irresponsibility”. It revealed the weakness of basic apparatuses of state administration, like up-to-date government databases. To face the crisis, we needed a society that gave far greater priority to care. Loud calls issued from unlikely places for a “new social contract” that would properly value essential workers and take account of the risks generated by the globalised lifestyles enjoyed by the most fortunate.

Has Covid ended the neoliberal era? | Adam Tooze

The long read: The year 2020 exposed the risks and weaknesses of the market-driven global system like never before. It’s hard to avoid the sense that a turning point has been reached

www.theguardian.com

 

[mspohr]

Staggering US wealth inequality heaps long-term harm on to minority children

Black children have access to just 1 cent for every dollar enjoyed by their white counterparts, new research shows, and Hispanic kids fare little better

www.theguardian.com

In March, the Biden administration introduced a child tax credit designed to help families with children caught in the poverty trap. It provides for $3,600 a year for every child under six, and $3,000 for older kids. But the measure, which experts have described as transformational, expires after a year. Whether becomes permanent now depends on Congress as it grapples with the US president’s $3.5tn budget plan which, in its current draft, would extend the provision.

“A relatively small group of parents – mostly white – control the lion’s share of the wealth available to children,” the authors conclude.

Such glaring disparities profoundly influence kids’ potential as they emerge into adulthood. They touch aspects of life that can make or break a child’s life, including the neighborhood they live in, the schools they attend, how secure they feel, how well they perform in exams, their behavioral record, and their health.

At stake is nothing less than the American dream, the aspiration popular among politicians of both main parties that anybody can make it no matter how modest their beginnings. Christina Gibson-Davis, a professor of public policy and sociology at Duke University who is co-editor of the new research, pointed to one of its central findings – that wealth inequality between American families has become so extreme that 1% of parents control 44% of all wealth held by households with children, while the top 10% control 82%.

The US stands out as an outlier compared with other industrialized nations in terms of both the approach to childhood taken by policymakers and governments, and the extent of inequality that flows from that. The new research looked at 14 industrialized countries, including Australia, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom, and found that the US was exceptional in the extent of wealth inequality between children and older age groups.

 

[eevee-fan]

Staggering US wealth inequality heaps long-term harm on to minority children

Black children have access to just 1 cent for every dollar enjoyed by their white counterparts, new research shows, and Hispanic kids fare little better

www.theguardian.com

In March, the Biden administration introduced a child tax credit designed to help families with children caught in the poverty trap. It provides for $3,600 a year for every child under six, and $3,000 for older kids. But the measure, which experts have described as transformational, expires after a year. Whether becomes permanent now depends on Congress as it grapples with the US president’s $3.5tn budget plan which, in its current draft, would extend the provision.

“A relatively small group of parents – mostly white – control the lion’s share of the wealth available to children,” the authors conclude.

Such glaring disparities profoundly influence kids’ potential as they emerge into adulthood. They touch aspects of life that can make or break a child’s life, including the neighborhood they live in, the schools they attend, how secure they feel, how well they perform in exams, their behavioral record, and their health.

At stake is nothing less than the American dream, the aspiration popular among politicians of both main parties that anybody can make it no matter how modest their beginnings. Christina Gibson-Davis, a professor of public policy and sociology at Duke University who is co-editor of the new research, pointed to one of its central findings – that wealth inequality between American families has become so extreme that 1% of parents control 44% of all wealth held by households with children, while the top 10% control 82%.

The US stands out as an outlier compared with other industrialized nations in terms of both the approach to childhood taken by policymakers and governments, and the extent of inequality that flows from that. The new research looked at 14 industrialized countries, including Australia, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom, and found that the US was exceptional in the extent of wealth inequality between children and older age groups.

Funny thing, I keep getting paper checks. I went on IRS site to stop it but it says I am not eligible to receive the Child Tax Credit. I guess I'll deposit the checks and then have it Net out when I file my taxes.

 

[Big Dog]

​

??? I don't think my quality of life is any lower by missing the smell of gasoline every time I refuel my car. It's enhanced really. What do you think the quality of life is like in New Orleans in September with no air conditioning?

Transmission tower destroyed by Ida likely to complicate power restoration in New Orleans, experts say​

Hardening all our infrastructure against storms super-charged by our pathetic addiction to fools fuel isn't going to be cheap. Why not tax fools fuel to help pay for mitigating the damage caused by fools fuel?

IMO we should tax most of externalities that negatively affect the environment. But to answer your question, raising taxes on gasoline is a non-starter with both the left and the right. (Biden personally nixed a gas tax increase on the $1bn Infrastructure bill as it would impact the poor disproportionately and he promised not to raise taxes on those making less than $xx. Sure, they could come up with mitigating payments to the poor, but perhaps that is too complex?)

 

[eevee-fan]

IMO we should tax most of externalities that negatively affect the environment. But to answer your question, raising taxes on gasoline is a non-starter with both the left and the right. (Biden personally nixed a gas tax increase on the $1bn Infrastructure bill as it would impact the poor disproportionately and he promised not to raise taxes on those making less than $xx. Sure, they could come up with mitigating payments to the poor, but perhaps that is too complex?)

Would be easy, we all get a monthly 'green dividend' check like the Child Tax Credit. Of course, the fossil fuel industry would try to convince you that the poor drive more.

 

[mspohr]

China's Alibaba to invest $15.5 bln for "common prosperity"

China's Alibaba Group (9988.HK), will invest 100 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) by 2025 in support of "common prosperity", it said, becoming the latest corporate giant to pledge support for the initiative driven by President Xi Jinping.

www.reuters.com

The government-backed Zhejiang News website said Alibaba's funds will go towards areas such as subsidies for small and medium-sized enterprises and improving insurance protection for gig economy workers such as couriers and ride-hailing drivers.

Explainer: What is China's 'common prosperity' drive and why does it matter?

President Xi Jinping has called for China to achieve "common prosperity", seeking to narrow a yawning wealth gap that threatens the country's economic ascent and the legitimacy of Communist Party rule.

www.reuters.com

China became an economic powerhouse under a hybrid policy of "socialism with Chinese characteristics", but it also deepened inequality, especially between urban and rural areas, a divide that threatens social stability.
The push for common prosperity has encompassed policies ranging from curbing tax evasion and limits on the hours that tech sector employees can work to bans on for-profit tutoring in core school subjects and strict limits on the time minors can spend playing video games.
This year, Xi has signalled a heightened commitment to delivering common prosperity, emphasising it is not just an economic objective but core to the party's governing foundation.

 

[mspohr]

US’s wealthiest 1% are failing to pay $160bn a year in taxes, report finds

Sarin said that tax gap – “the difference between taxes that are owed and collected” – amounted to “around $600bn annually and will mean approximately $7tn of lost tax revenue over the next decade.”

Republicans in Congress and lobbyists for business are united in opposition to the proposal to shore up tax enforcement. “The sheer magnitude of lost revenue is striking,” Sarin wrote. “It is equal to 3% of GDP, or all the income taxes paid by the lowest earning 90% of taxpayers.

 

[mspohr]

Congress is on the cusp of passing the most pivotal bill in years – if we make them | Rebecca Solnit

Because the budget reconciliation bill is maybe the most important thing happening right now, in the long run, but the least dramatic, at least in how it’s being reported. By important I mean significant, for all of us, for the long-term future, for the lives of ordinary people and for the climate.

I wrote here about the way the collapse of one building in Florida seemed to get more coverage than the heat dome covering much of North America for a few deadly days in July, during which well over a thousand people died, shellfish by the billion died along the north-west coast, fires broke out, a town burned down, millions suffered and records were broken by leaps and bounds. It was too dispersed and too complex a story to be told in the quick, compact formats of the news. The heat dome was not just a huge disaster, but a sign that the climate was getting more chaotic faster than anticipated.

The budget reconciliation bill could be the single most important piece of climate legislation to date in this country, and it’s not certain whether it will pass or what exactly will be in it. Public pressure matters, which is why its low profile is maddening. The budget reconciliation bill is a cornucopia. It will probably include universal childcare and preschool! Medicare expansion! Raising taxes on the wealthy! Gobs of climate action that generates heaps of jobs! Possibly a Climate Conservation Corps, if, as Katie Porter pointed out in a recent talk, people demand it loudly and strongly enough! Repealing fossil fuel subsidies! None of this matters if it doesn’t pass (and there is some drama in the ways Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are making themselves into obstructionists demanding to be placated).

 

[mspohr]

Covid Showed Us What Keynes Always Knew Opinion | Covid Showed Us What Keynes Always Knew

The world discovered that John Maynard Keynes was right when he declared during World War II that ‘anything we can actually do, we can afford,’” writes Adam Tooze. “Budget constraints don’t seem to exist; money is a mere technicality. The hard limits of financial sustainability, policed, we used to think, by ferocious bond markets, were blurred by the 2008 financial crisis. In 2020, they were erased.”

 

[mspohr]

House Democrats are scared to tax billionaires – that’s a costly mistake | Robert Reich

You might also have assumed Democrats would target America’s biggest corporations, awash in cash but paying a pittance in taxes. Thirty-nine of the S&P 500 or Fortune 500 paid no federal income tax at all from 2018 to 2020 while reporting a combined $122bn in profits to their shareholders. But remarkably, House Democrats have decided to set corporate tax rates below the level they were at when Barack Obama was in the White House. Democrats even kept scaled-back versions of infamous corporate loopholes such as private equity’s “carried interest”. And they retained special tax breaks for oil and gas companies.

Republicans sold their souls to the moneyed interests long ago, but the timidity of House Democrats shows just how loudly big money speaks these days even in the party of Franklin D Roosevelt.