I can't get my head around the carbon tax logic. I get that the factories that pollute are getting taxed as an incentive to change & develop greener alternatives, but their sole existance is to manufacture stuff for ppl to use/consume. I realise we need electricity but without our appetite for the ammount of throw away useless crap out there many factories wouldn't even exist. Should ppl take responsibility for doing more damage than the factories that make the stuff for us or are we just victims of endless Danoz Direct advertising. Does anyone reckon we are being rewarded ($10 or so/wk) to buy more useless stuff. Are we just buying way more crap than we really need & what is the incentive for US to consume less, change our habits & go greener. Do we really need a new kitchen every 5yrs or that swivel sweeper. Would our lives be poorer without it. Somewhere, some factory has to manufacture it. If I was a cynic I could question the ammount of pollution & tax payers $$$$ the govt lets go up in smoke as fireworks in every city on New Years Eve. And how much carbon tax will be paid per year to bomb a city as big as say, Baghdad. I wonder weather the govt is serious about saving the planet or keeping us voters onside. Can we really have a throw away society & a clean planet at the same time. Why can I buy a printer for $69 & it cost more for ink. So I throw a perfectly good printer into landfill cos it's cheaper to buy a new one than refill it. Can we keep using up our resourses, belch smoke into the air, buy our shiny trinkets, dump them into landfill & do it all again indefinately. I can't see how punishing 500 polluters is going to change anything, especially when the govt is giving us consumers cash back......I was a tad worried when Russia was going to start WW3, when the Commies were coming to get us from Viet Nam, Nuclear war, Cuban missile crisis, SARS, HIV, AIDS, Y2K bug, Terrorists, Anthrax, Hendra virus, Planets aligning, UFOs, Bird flu & other pandemics, Global warming, boat ppl taking over, high cholesterol..... I'm really starting to lose interest & sick of the scare mongering.....Don't get me wrong, I would'nt knock back a corvette or a lear jet, i'm a consumer too, but according to the climate change believers we are way past the 11th hour & I do wish all govts would co-operate & get serious about it or leave us alone to rape & pillage.
