Political and popular culture celebs rushing to promote Prop 87
Barak Obama, Ben Afflek, Robert Redford, Julia Roberts. The list of celebrities who have endorsed the clean air/tax on oil companies initiative Proposition 87 in California is getting longer by the day. The people in the No on 87 crowd aren't nearly as well known, but there is a list of 100 economists who are against the proposition. Who's on the list? I looked up Professor Kate Zhou, one of the economists from Hawaii, just because she's where I am right now. I went to her personal webpage, and quickly learned she's a big fan of President Bush (he's featured on her personal website, where the picture above was snagged from). I don't think Bush has made a public comment regarding Prop 87, but former President Clinton is certainly in favor of the measure. Ahhh, presidents.Related:
[Source: Yes on 87, No Oil Tax, The University of Hawaii]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phil L. 12:41PM (10/30/2006)
I'm all for research and development of petroleum replacements - but governments have a poor track record creating new, substantive gains in this field. I fear this program will become a $4 billion place for politians to play favorites and keep consituencies happy.
The Voter's Guide for this issue doesn't give me any warm fuzzies (full disclosure: I don't live in CA). One of the stated goals is reducing dependency on petroleum from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, surely a worthwhile effort. But these countries are actually numbers 3 and 6, respectively, for US petroleum imports (as of EIA report dated October 26, 2006). Could it be that arguments for this proposal are less compelling if we want to decrease dependency on imports from our number 1 and 2 petroleum sources, Canada and Mexico?
And somehow there'd be a rebate program for alternative/renewable fuel use (remember the rebate form for that computer upgrade? What do you think a government rebate program would look like?). And they're promised this *won't* create a new bureaucracy.
Governments are good entities to use when you need to set priorities and create funding mechanisms. Governments don't tend to be good at evaluating competing solutions and developing technologies. Political realities mean that any 'winners' are chosen based on characteristics that often don't include factual merit.
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loikll 5:00PM (10/31/2006)
So your point is that uneducated, brainless celebrities who are insulated from the real world support Prop 87, but legitimate Economists oppose it. Hmm, haven't given it much thought, but you're right, it probably is a government scam.
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