Debt crisis: austerity, a chance for econology?

[Christophe]

It's all in the title: governments are looking for new taxes, here and there, at the same time they have energy and CO2 / climate objectives to meet ...

So why not kill two birds with one stone and take the opportunity to tax (or remove aid, which is a negative tax) the products with the most negative impact on the environment?

When cold, some suggestions:

- Elimination of all automobile aid
- Taxes on bottled water
- Taxes on the installation of new fossil fuel boilers
- Tax on second homes
- Travel tax, airline tickets
- Tax on the "visa" of foreign tourists (France is the 1st country in the world on the number of tourists ...)
- Decrease the tax exemption of the actual cost km (there that to moan)
- etc etc ... (add yours)

There are hundreds of possible suggestions which would have a positive impact on the environment while not having a too negative impact on the economy, or even a positive impact (development of new industries).

The implementation would be very easy via a new VAT rate called "Luxury" ...

When taxing or taxing, you should always keep in mind, the Laffer's curve : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courbe_de_Laffer

ps: read also society-and-philosophy/financial-debt-or-ecological-debt-t11087.html

[Christophe]

For the moment what will be debated today does not really fit into this "green" philosophy:

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article ... 23448.html

The austerity plan under debate in the Assembly, against the backdrop of the stock market crisis

In a context still clouded by the new plunge on European financial centers on Monday, MEPs debate, Tuesday, September 6, the first measures of the government's austerity plan, including one provision, the increased taxation of capital gains on property, would be reduced.

According to the latest arbitrations on Monday evening, the government has accepted that real estate capital gains are exempt from tax when the property sold has been held for more than thirty years. The abolition of the deduction on real estate capital gains on second homes, hitherto exempt after fifteen years, had indeed created a stir among real estate professionals. Some members of the majority considered it "brutal".

Overall, the austerity plan must make it possible to garner one billion euros in new revenue, from 2011, out of the 12 billion programmed by the end of 2012 by the government. One of the measures contained in the collective budget examined Tuesday and Wednesday is already stillborn. Raising the VAT on theme parks has in fact wreaked havoc in the majority and has been left on the side of the road. MEPs will have to confirm its deletion.

FRICTION POINTS

Since the end of last week, the telephones crackle between Bercy and the Assembly to try to agree on other points of friction such as the measure affecting real estate capital gains. The debate will be "lively", promises the President of the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer.

To compensate for the shortfall in the suppression of the increase in VAT on theme parks (90 million in 2012) and this retouching on real estate gains, the hunt for revenue is open, because the government does not want to start its envelope of a billion euros in savings.
Corporate tax measures are favored by the government, in particular the end of the consolidated global profit system.

The hypothesis of a taxation of the luxury hotel industry is also in the pipes. For the opposition, the debate will above all be an opportunity to break in arguments and solutions on the economic crisis, in particular for the member for Corrèze François Hollande, in the middle of the primary campaign, while the right is relentlessly attacking the "credibility" of the PS.

MEPs must also validate, during this discussion, the aid plan for Greece, decided last July when the eurozone was plunged into stock market turbulence, which is far from being appeased.

Ah finally if there is a little ecology: taxation of overnight stays over 150 € (therefore affects tourists and luxury), but it is not yet voted! http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualit ... l-ump.html

There will soon be a lot of rooms at 149 € I bet

surprisingly, VAT was reduced on amusement parks ???? (while it is not, for example, on economic light bulbs). I thought that the reduced VAT was reserved for products 1ere necessity (food ...) and cultural products like books (CDs, DVDs and other multimedia are 20% ...)

The initial plan included raising the VAT rate on theme park entry tickets from 5,5% to 19,6%, a measure immediately denounced on both the left and right.

[Did67]

- nuclear electricity (provision for the risk of "contaminated areas") ???

Joking aside: obviously any crisis would be, if we were able to discuss it and forge a real project, the moment to put a few things flat ...

[everything that doesn't destroy you makes you stronger]

Strictly speaking, if we put aside the 15 or 20% of the population trapped by charges, constraints, etc ... each of us could "absorb" a loss of income or "purchasing power of 5 % just by sorting through its consumptions, bypassing trivialities, etc ...

There, we cry because growth would only be 1,75% ...

[sspid14]

Also cold ...
- additional tax on trucks which use our roads and which only pass sometimes (for Belgium at least)

- additional tax on cigarettes ... well ok they are already roughed up for now with all the bans and an already very high tax.

- fossil fuel tax

- tax on mobile phones (it could pay off!)

- tax on paper, especially for businesses ...

- tax on company cars, this will avoid "who cares, it's the company that pays my 70km / year while I live 000km from my place of work"

- ...

On the other hand, Christophe you say "a tax on the boilers", this tax will not have the opposite effect. People will keep their old, poorly performing boilers. To have...

[Christophe]

Uh there is something that I do not understand: you go to work how many times a day to 70 000km being 5 km ???

The fossil tax, I dared not say ... it must be exactly like the Laffer curve with respect to GDP ... over-taxing kills the economy ... But as Did67 rightly said, we have margin !

The tax on fossil fuel boilers should favor equipment in renewable fuels ... (which could be less subsidized: a subsidy is just a reverse tax)

[freddau]

It requires skill all that ...

[renaud67]

uh ...
cut budgets?

[sen-no-sen]

I am afraid that, as usual, his austerity measures are not once again reserved for the most disadvantaged classes.

Rather than talking about "austerity cures", which the smartest will divert to their benefit, we should set up a new society based on "Efficient sobriety".
For that rather than tightening the belt, it would rather be necessary to reorganize the system and limit the superfluous expenses, so that in a way people live as well but with less.

EX: tax fuels, powerful vehicles, set up car vignettes, urban tolls, to finance free transport and / or a sharp drop in public transport prices.

Stop financing the construction of social housing, to pay interest-free loans to all people.

Tax sweet products, and donate to healthier products etc ...

[Did67]

Hey guys, are we calm? We are going to finish in Bercy !!!

[Ahmed]

Christophe wrote:

I thought that the reduced VAT was reserved for basic necessities (food ...) / ...

A few decades ago caviar was taxed at 5,5%, like noodles or potatoes! Since then, this shocking anomaly has been removed ...
There is a certain logic in the choice of rates, but it is not, however, absolute.

The fact remains that the measures which have a real impact are amended, or even never applied because they are too "brutal" for a class accustomed to a lot, a lot of care ...

I lean for the analysis of Sen-no-sen: after the election period, it will no longer be necessary to "watch big" big fortunes ...