I was taken aback reading a new article in The Nation, a left-liberal magazine, which endorses carbon fee and dividend as a core policy of any just society. The article is an excerpt from a new book by British economist and philosopher David Chandler. It envisions what a just society would look like through the framework set forth by the famous moral philosopher John Rawls. Chandler writes:
Crucially, [his principles] show us how we can combine freedom and democracy with true economic justice. Indeed, it is when it comes economic question that we really see the profound implications of Rawls’s ideas.
This must start with urgent action to avert ecological and climate breakdown through massive public investment and an economy-wide carbon “tax and dividend” scheme, leaving all but the richest 30 percent better off.
Wow! Here's a link to his book Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like? The Financial Times and New Statesman both named it a “book of the year.” The list of rave reviews from famous economists, philosophers, book critics, and others is remarkable. Don't let anyone tell you that our core policy is passé.
@Jonathan Marshall
Thanks for pointing out this encouraging piece from a core Progressive publication. If more progressive intellectuals and academics looked back to Rawls’ “hopeful affirmation of human possibilities”, maybe the Academy will reconsider our Liberal traditions and dump the cult of “me”, identity politics and the un-American insistence on equality of outcomes.
And yes, let’s hope that when regulation, subsidies and government coercion disappoint, sensible people will turn to CF&D, maybe as a last resort. (There is a quote that governments will turn to Carbon Pricing “when all lose fails”, but I can’t find it).
Let’s be ready.
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