I learned all this from Mike at Watching the Deniers who in turn got it from The West Australian, who first broke the story - kudos to them !
Deane Priest , the MD (boss) of the chain wrote a chatty little newsletter to all of the chain's franchisee telling them to jack up prices in July and just blame it all on the new Carbon Tax.
Outrage followed when The West Australian newspaper reprinted the newsletter.
The carbon-pollution-loving ultra-Liberal party went ducking for cover and the federal government's consumer protection agency ,the ACCC, announced it would investigate for possible price gouging.
Deane Priest's only crime, as far as I can see, is stupidity and a marked lack of ability in the two-facedness-department.
He should have taken a lesson in two-faced audacity from the ultra-Liberal party leader Tony Abbott who said:
The truth is the carbon tax is going to impact on every price in our country
Well Tony - I can call you Tony can't I ? - the government here in Canada can put up taxes all it likes on booze, fags and lottery tickets - I don't drink, smoke or gamble and as long as they don't tax swearing , I feel secure.
The fact is that taxes often have a differential impact, not a universal impact , which is why new taxes are so frequently used to nudge society in different directions rather than simply used to raise extra revenue.
In fact Green Party types like Canada's Jim Harris frequently propose "revenue neutral taxes" - for example, taxing carbon polluters but then giving all that revenue to encourage new renewable energy producers.
The net effect is that the government has no more revenue, but human society has been eased away from self-engineering its own 'climatic' doom.
So for example, a small local bakery that generates its own electricity off its own roof panels and then sells its bread in its own shop won't see the cost of its bread rise, but their big competitor, reliant on external energy and selling their bread - by carbon-burning truck - over a wide area, is going to see a true cost rise.
Ultimately, locally-made and sold bread, using local sunlight, will cost less to the customer and become more popular, while the big regional bakery (say Brumby's) goes belly up.
Its called a market solution and its coming from a socialist government - a bit odd that , Tony, but what can you do ?
Yes, Tony, they did used to call them 'sin' taxes - "hitting only the sinners and sparing the saints" , back in the days when most people still believed in sin.
But Tony, burning carbon is a sin, when there are cost-competitive* renewable alternatives.
Cost-competitive, as in the eyes of energy accountants' bean counting.
A lot more tough-assed than slackers like you, me and Tony, these hardnosed buggers rightfully count in the cost of externally-borne pollution costs , set them against internal profits, and then find consistently negative values.
For example, when burning the most common types of coal (sulfur-dirty,high moisture content, low BTU per mass) used in much of our electrical production.
I feel I can call Tony Abbott an ultra-Liberal (aka a libertarian) rather than a conservative as most media are inclined to do, because true conservatives, like myself, tend to be a censorious lot - always wanting to tax the other guy's sins.
But Mr Abbott has consistently been against taxing any sins - in opposing a tax on sinful carbon he is at least being consistent - to himself and his party's true (ultra-Liberal) values.
But just as consistently, even in very rich countries, bread remains the Staff of Life and woe be tide any party that lets its cost soar too high.
Then they face certain defeat at the polls - or even a date with the modern version of the dreaded guillotine blade, as the events of Libya in the Arab Spring demonstrate yet again.....
No comments:
Post a Comment