XPost: soc.culture.usa, alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism, can.politics   
   From: dragon40@unseen.is   
      
   Joe Cooper  wrote in   
   news:XnsA3526FC35DBD8proggiessuck@78.46.70.116:   
      
   Oops.   
      
   On July 1, 2008, the Canadian province of British Columbia implemented a   
   supposedly "revenue-neutral" carbon tax. The current tax rate is $30 per   
   tonne of CO2 equivalent emissions.   
      
   Over the past couple years, a number of carbon tax proponents in Canada   
   and internationally have attempted to show that British Columbia's carbon   
   tax has either not increased the cost of living in the province and/or   
   has not reduced the province's economic performance relative to the rest   
   of the nation. The economic data simply do not support these assertions.   
      
   As the provincial government notes, "the carbon tax applies to the   
   purchase or use of fuels within the province." Here are the tax rates by   
   fuel: [CHART]   
      
   Putting a tax on energy might lead one to suspect that the inflation rate   
   on energy in British Columbia will have increased faster than the rest of   
   the country since the carbon tax was implemented. And, of course, it did.   
      
   [CHART]   
      
   The consumer price index (CPI) for energy in British Columbia has   
   consistently increased more rapidly than the national average since   
   carbon tax implementation. Between June 2008 and April 2014, Canada's   
   energy CPI increased only 3.6 percent, exactly half the rate of increase   
   seen in British Columbia (7.2 percent) over this period. Thus, the cost   
   of energy post-carbon tax is increasing twice as fast in British Columbia   
   versus the Canadian average. Compare that to the six-year period before   
   British Columbia brought in its carbon tax. From June 2002 to June 2008,   
   the energy CPI in British Columbia was increasing significantly slower   
   than the national average.   
      
   To summarize: before the carbon tax, the energy CPI in the province was   
   increasing at a much slower rate than the Canadian average; after the   
   carbon tax, the energy CPI for British Columbia has increased at twice   
   the national average. This is called carbon tax induced energy poverty,   
   and it is detrimental to economic growth.   
      
   Speaking of economic growth, since implementing its carbon tax in 2008,   
   British Columbia has lagged the national average in growth of real per   
   capita GDP, primary household income, and household disposable income.   
   Surely this can't be seen as promising news for the purportedly non-   
   harmful economic impacts of carbon taxation? In the five years before the   
   carbon tax came in, British Columbia's real per capita GDP grew at almost   
   twice the rate of the rest of Canada. After the carbon tax, the   
   province's growth rate has been four-fold lower than the national   
   average. That is an eight-fold abrupt turn negative swing in the opposite   
   direction following the carbon tax.   
      
   The same stories exist for real per capita primary household income and   
   real per capita household disposable income in British Columbia. Both   
   were also growing much faster than the Canadian average in the five years   
   before the carbon tax, and since the carbon tax both have been growing   
   much slower than the Canadian average. Since the carbon tax, British   
   Columbia's unemployment rate has also increased 70 percent faster than   
   the Canadian average. [CHARTS]   
      
   Residents of British Columbia simply cannot afford higher costs of living   
   and substandard economic performance. Between 2008 and 2012, the   
   household saving rate (saving as a percentage of household disposable   
   income) averaged -1.5 percent (i.e., negative), whereas the corresponding   
   Canadian average was +4.6 percent (i.e., positive). British Columbia has   
   the highest average consumer debt -- excluding mortgage -- in Canada, at   
   41 percent above the national average. Throw in mortgage debt, and   
   British Columbia is still 36 percent above the Canadian average.   
      
   British Columbia isn't alone. Denmark -- with a carbon tax for two   
   decades -- has an economy going backwards at a rapid rate coupled to   
   skyrocketing crime rates. The experiment has failed. It is long overdue   
   for British Columbia to jettison its carbon tax and get its economy   
   moving again.   
      
   Source: http://bit.ly/1iRbtZT   
   Remember in November   
      
   --   
   "If the Democrats didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any   
   standards all." (Chuck Lehmann)   
      
   “The best way to undermine leftism is to let it operate for awhile.   
   Expose the country at large to the nightmare realities of life under a   
   Lyndon Johnson, a Jimmy Carter, or an Obama, and you will inoculate the   
   citizenry for a generation to come.” — J.R. Dunn   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)