How to Avoid More Oil Spills? Abolish the Payroll Tax!

Sometimes you have to put two stories side by side to highlight the strange tradeoffs we make every day in a complex world.

Yesterday, in the New York Times, one story chronicled how Transocean and BP have long pushed the limits on safe, and possibly legal, oil exploration, while another reported that our most vital natural resource -- people -- is going dramatically underutilized, with millions unable to find work, and millions more who have given up looking.

A saner society might put these problems together and say: Hey, why don't we reorganize our economy so that it's less oil-powered and more people-powered? Well, remember Economics 101? There are only three "factors of production": land (resources), labor and capital. And if we cut back on one, we have to use more of the others. So how could we use fewer natural resources and put more people to work at the same time?

One solution that's being advanced by a group called Get America Working is to reduce or abolish the payroll tax and replace it with higher taxes on natural resources.

Why does this make sense? Read the full article on Dowser here.

 

Follow David Bornstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dnbornstein