No. I think you're talking about Cap and Trade. Big business is already figuring out ways to game that system.

Taxes have been used with great success in the past to modify behavior. Gore's idea was to replace the income tax all together with a carbon tax.

A fairly distributed tax on everyone's carbon footprint - individuals and business alike. The long view: incentives for conservation and renewable energy. I'm not deluding myself that this will happen but I thought it was a visionary idea.

Not at all. Here's a guy who has the courage of his convictions. A man who puts his money where his mouth is. You speak as if his success was assured.

So where is the cheaper energy you allude to?
I'm sure you are all over modifying the behaviour of others, but you do not understand that you have been taken in by what grifters call a long con.

Spotting a long con may be difficult if your idealism and will to control others overwhelms common sense, that most uncommon of virtues.

Most of us who bear the major brunt of taxation understand quite clearly that it has mostly bought us more debt, much more debt than would be prudent and little else. The free market already provides great incentives for energy conservation and investment in future energy sources, forcing people to purchase inefficient programs at the point of a gun will never alter the available technology.

Victims of long cons often don't report them. It would cause a lot of embarrassment and not reflect well on the victim. People often find it hard to admit that they have been taken in by a confidence game.

Again you miss the point Al is putting my money where his mouth (and wallet) is and he is using the goobermint to do it. Big Al's net worth in 2000 2 million, in 2008 100 million.

Wouldn't a carbon tax just percolate down to the consumer as another sales tax, thus eliminating the progressive nature of federal taxation? The rich can afford to "go green" more easily than the middle class. And suppose the "behavioral modification" worked --- the feds would starve themselves of revenue.

Aye, there's the rub. Lobbyists and lawyers would have a field day arguing the proper allocation of "carbon penalty points" for each good and service on the market. Exemptions and exceptions would be handed out to those with the right connections and political clout.

The funny part, he assumes corporations and businesses actually pay taxes instead of just passing the cost on to the customers.

Well... jumping from the first page to the last page sure makes you realize how off topic we are...

At the moment, this is the most popular thread on the front page.

Quite right, so I will offer a little recap of the things we have learned so far:

1. The pilot of the aircraft was a "sleeper" actuated by a vast right wing terror group intending to take down the government.

2. We are stealing our oil, but at the same time paying too much.

3. Gore has a vision that will save us all if we just allow him to make us pay more for our energy.

4. Letting a Madcow whisper in your ear every day may turn your mind to mush.

My assertion is that any renewable source of energy that doesn't require a standing army to seize and won't foul the environment is going to be cheaper.

Unobtanium?

Hey are you guys claiming the Pentagon Shooter for your team? Or is he one of Beck's too?