Subsidising al-Qaeda
Sep 30, 2007
Bishop Hill in Greens

There's an interesting article at Marginal Revolution looking at some of the unintended consequences of Pigou taxes as applied to the perceived need to keep fossil fuels underground. There seems to be a serious risk that the imposition of a Pigou tax will either simply redistribute oil to non-Pigou-taxing countries, or simply accelerate production as producers seek to avoid ever-rising tax levels.

The bottom line is this: paying countries to blow up their oil fields may be more effective than taxing the resource.

As Tyler Cowen notes, we know of several freelance groups who will do this kind of thing for free.

...which kind of makes you wonder how long will it be until the Greens call for al-Qaeda to receive state subsidies, in view of the selfless work they are doing in the fight to save us from global warming.

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