Great article but I don't really agree with the judgmental tone. It comes off a bit like "people are stupid and selfish" when the real lesson is we need to approach this in a more populist way. The recommendations are actually in line with that.
IMO the best way to get people on your side is make big promises and show how your policies can make them real. Cheap power with solar and home batteries, faster commutes with public transit, stop paying for gas with EVs, lower rent with density and public housing. Promise subsidies for all of it so everyone knows they will be able to afford the change and don't get left behind.
Prefer subsidies over tariffs, raising existing taxes over new ones, mandates over bans and rewards over punishment (except when it comes to big corporations). People hate being told what they can't do but they're mostly okay with being told what they have to do, especially when it's cheap and you explain how it benefits them.
Like the stuff about Australia exploiting gas. The average Australian is being ripped off royally by that.
From Saul Griffiths:
> Here is the part that should make every taxpayer in the country furious: those gas exports — the ones we are extending the life of, approving new ones for, calling them "strategic" — THEY BARELY EARN AUSTRALIA ANYTHING. Norway used its gas revenues to build vehicle-charging networks and help Norwegians buy electric cars. We don't even seem to try to make revenues. The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax raises less revenue in a year than the federal government collects from the excise on beer. Norway runs a sovereign wealth fund worth US$1.7 trillion off its hydrocarbons. Qatar funds its entire welfare state on LNG. We give it away on legacy contracts negotiated when oil was $30 a barrel and watch the LNG tankers leave Karratha. We are not even getting paid to be a petrostate. We are other people's petrostate, and too stupid to profit from it.
So if it's all about money in a broad "people want to save money" sense, why is a small group of people and corporations ripping off Australians to such a degree? Shouldn't their desire for money drive then to do something?
No, because their media is bought, their politicians are bought, and their idiots are all useful to these interests. So they let themselves be robbed.
And the same is true on the closely linked topic of climate, and across nations from the US to Germany.
Great article but I don't really agree with the judgmental tone. It comes off a bit like "people are stupid and selfish" when the real lesson is we need to approach this in a more populist way. The recommendations are actually in line with that.
IMO the best way to get people on your side is make big promises and show how your policies can make them real. Cheap power with solar and home batteries, faster commutes with public transit, stop paying for gas with EVs, lower rent with density and public housing. Promise subsidies for all of it so everyone knows they will be able to afford the change and don't get left behind.
Prefer subsidies over tariffs, raising existing taxes over new ones, mandates over bans and rewards over punishment (except when it comes to big corporations). People hate being told what they can't do but they're mostly okay with being told what they have to do, especially when it's cheap and you explain how it benefits them.
This seems like mostly pseudo-profound bullshit.
Like the stuff about Australia exploiting gas. The average Australian is being ripped off royally by that.
From Saul Griffiths:
> Here is the part that should make every taxpayer in the country furious: those gas exports — the ones we are extending the life of, approving new ones for, calling them "strategic" — THEY BARELY EARN AUSTRALIA ANYTHING. Norway used its gas revenues to build vehicle-charging networks and help Norwegians buy electric cars. We don't even seem to try to make revenues. The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax raises less revenue in a year than the federal government collects from the excise on beer. Norway runs a sovereign wealth fund worth US$1.7 trillion off its hydrocarbons. Qatar funds its entire welfare state on LNG. We give it away on legacy contracts negotiated when oil was $30 a barrel and watch the LNG tankers leave Karratha. We are not even getting paid to be a petrostate. We are other people's petrostate, and too stupid to profit from it.
https://energyandstuff.substack.com/p/46bn-per-year-what-aus...
So if it's all about money in a broad "people want to save money" sense, why is a small group of people and corporations ripping off Australians to such a degree? Shouldn't their desire for money drive then to do something?
No, because their media is bought, their politicians are bought, and their idiots are all useful to these interests. So they let themselves be robbed.
And the same is true on the closely linked topic of climate, and across nations from the US to Germany.
This was very well thought out and written.
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