Alright, there was some chatter going on for months (by the SPD, and Green Parties), and this week.....the Environmental Minister of Germany (Schulze, SPD) said that basically....the country needs a CO2 'tax'.
This came out of an interview, and the impression is that you'd have to curb people's attitude and take their money....in order to force 'change'.
The amount she suggested? Twenty Euro per ton, per individual. You can go and do the calculator business, and the rough numbers for an average guy is thirteen tons of CO2 per year.....meaning you'd have to come up with 260 Euro (per person). Maybe you'd just count mom and dad this way, and just say two kids amount to 100 Euro, and a family hit of 620 Euro per year for the whole family.
Now, all of this leads to a mystery equation (don't tell the Germans this). You'd have to know how a guy travels (by bike, scooter, walking, horseback, car, bus, or train). You'd have to know about his habits on vacations (if he jets off to New Zealand each year with his wife). You'd have to know about his tendency to buy bio-organic materials to consume. You'd have to know about his heat for the house (whether natural gas, coal, wood, or electrical). There's probably at least forty different variables which lead to that 13 tons of CO2, and if you were a guy in a big house, with two cars, and running an AC unit....you might be up in the 60 tons of CO2 (meaning 1,200 Euro per person).
Yes, it gets to a complicated level.
But you'd get to a level of asking the logical question.....a lot of extra money would be rolling into the government's revenue pot....billions per year across Germany. What happens to that CO2 money?
Well....Schulze says it'd be granted out as social compensation (gift money). This would solve 'medium' and 'small' incomes. The people with higher income, big cars, extensive travel, etc.....would carry the load.
What would obviously happen?
In the first year of this 'pain', you'd find a number of people complaining about the way this was measured, and the increasing cost of living. Somewhere along the second year, those with an abundant income and in the position to leave Germany (meaning to relocate)....would pack and move to Poland, Hungary, or Czech. Acceleration of the exodus would be seen by the fourth year, and the wondering 'gift-money' business would suddenly start to sputter....meaning a 30-to-40 percent cut. The travel to overseas locations? That would shift from Hamburg and Frankfurt....to Prague, Amsterdam, and Vienna. Why would you pay an extra 150 to 250 Euro for a airline ticket, to cover CO2 drama?
At this point, the people pushing the agenda would go and demand that the rest of the EU copy their amazing feat, and prevent people from escaping the CO2 tax. There, they'd find people laughing over the agenda, and refusing to bring it up as a EU shift.
The odds of this CO2 tax occurring? Right now....zero percent chance. If you had a Green Party Chancellor in Berlin, with the SPD and Linke Parties as partners, it's probably closer to a 100-percent chance.
If this sounds like some modern Robin Hood-scheme, where the money got exchanged from the wealthy to the poor? Well, that's the chief issue. It's almost like an artificial recession, to be created out of thin air. But here's the thing, if CO2 was your big thing, and the hotest problem to be dealt with, then you'd go and make houses and appliances as modern as possible, and lessen the tax rate (19-percent) on those items to zero....convincing people to renew their freezers, washers, dryers, and heating systems. Yet you don't see that type of problem-solving....it's more along the lines of problem-inventing.
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