> I'm totally in favor of a carbon tax (even as a leftist it's a no-brainer market solution) but to claim that the corporations won't outsource to tax havens because of the "political" cost is totally laughable and just doesn't bear out in reality.

I'm conflicted by this for several reasons as I want to believe it but I have enough Life experience to know its a farce.

I have lived and worked in the 2 states with the most expensive gas in the US (Hawaii and California) and I can tell you right now the expense is a minor deterrent at best. I grew up in SoCal's motorsports culture most of my Life and when I was deepest in it in my youn adult life we certainly didn't care about MPG or the costs associated it.

Daily driving track cars on the street with open waste gate and massive turbo cars with 500+hp were childhood aspirations, and +$4 dollar gas was just the cost of entry. We all knew it and accepted it and perversely wore it as a badge of honor. The traffic is famously abysmal and we spent way more money just sitting in the freeway than I care to think about back then, and yet it never stopped us. Not once.

I was mainly forced to drive my track on the street when it $5/gallon after my cheap daily car (1980s Honda Prelude) was taken away from the State. And I finished my junior and most of my senior year with a car that got at best ~17mpg commuting 110 mile to school and and extra 45 when I had to go to work.

This was out of necessity and not really choice, as I would have never done it it were up to me. But the money I would have other spent on books or food (subsequently I ate once a day, or every other day at work as a cook). The money deterrent doesn't actually work if you think the investment will pay off in the long term, eg Graduation and Career.

Hawaii was the same but for different reasons and depends on which Island you're on, but no one is going to care about gas prices when you spent $1000s for rent or plane tickets and hotel costs how much gas price (well over $5) I never once saw locals stop to think maybe they should ride a bike and continued to drive their lifted trucks with mud tires in traffic.

But then I lived in Switzerland, in several cantons including Zurich, and I can tell you right now that it has a deterrent on the youth only.

Older rich people who work in finance or mega corps are driving Maybach/Brabus/AMG S class Mercedes and Alpina BMWs to their homes in town back and forth and take them to the Alps on the weekends, all while the youth (who may or may not see value in the supposed status those cars have) take public transport every where despite having VERY expensive driving licenses as they cannot afford cars let alone gas or the fees on a small VW/Renault/Fiat.

I still remember laughing to myself when I saw a long row of Lamborghinis and Ferraris during the gumball with Swiss plates headed to Monaco on the bahnhofstrass at the Zurich SBB as they were all stuck in traffic and you could visually see the heat dissipation ripples at the SBB entrance for several minutes as they waited for the foot traffic to clear out for the daily commute.

The joke being that they collectively probably wasted more in gas in those 8 minutes, which is very EXPENSIVE in Switzerland, than I earned in the previous 2 weeks at the time during my apprenticeship. Not to mention how many of these loopholes on taxes, and fees are used by registering Supercars or Super Saloon German exec cars or massive G Wagons as a company car that makes it exempt from many of the fees you're describing.

I think he's arguing from a very naive position and they think that the Law applies to everyone equally when it never has.

I'm not advocating this from an an 'eat the rich' perspective, as I have no problem with wealthy people who earned their money honestly by servicing the Market and saved their entire lives but rather from the obvious selective application of Law and that until that is made clear that these things apply to EVERYONE it will continue to happen.

Gore is a prime example of your limousine liberals who pontificate about the Environmental disaster and the standards that everyone must adhere to knowing very well they will never live up as he flies all over the World in his private jet and will still be enriched and lauded for it despite being a complete fraud.