Why the carbon tax is a bloody stupid idea
Behaviour modification taxes work by changing the path-of-least-resistance. People choose options that don’t involve paying the tax. Since there aren’t any options that avoid the carbon tax, it will have absolutely no effect on taxpayer behaviour.
Buy an electric car? Where do you think the electricity comes from? And there will be a great deal of energy expended creating the new car, so this would increase liability.
Buy a PV array to generate your own electricity? Not a completely stupid idea but it will cost you $20,000 and take 15 years to recover your money. The units last for 25 years, assuming you don’t get hail damage. And a great deal of energy is expended making them.
Build a wind farm? You need a lot of room. Your neighbour’s wife will complain to the council, which will run interference and insist that it’s a commercial operation requiring rezoning. If you do manage to build them, your girlfriend will whine almost as much as the turbines because they’re noisy.
I can think of several effective strategies, but all of them depend on the end of life as we know it, because our society and our economy will not support the required behaviour and organisation.
With things as they are, the only thing a carbon tax can achieve is making taxpayers poorer. Canberra will take our money, count it, and give it back less processing fees. Unless they spend it on something else first.