The Congressional Budget Office says the poorest one-fifth of families could see annual energy costs rise $700 — while high-income families could see costs rise $2,200. Harvard economist Martin Feldstein estimates that the average person could pay an extra $1,500 per year for energy. And those are just direct energy costs.Doesn't take into account how much a sack of flour will cost you when the price of its production trebles.
Also troubling:
Companies are desperate to have a "seat at the negotiating table," and thus happy to pay $400-$850 per hour to help cut deals that benefit them, hobble competitors and enact cap-tax-and-trade rules that will make mortgage derivatives markets look like child's play.
I'm for free trade, but that doesn't mean I'm pro big business --more often than not, just as described here the largest companies collude with government to inhibit competition. Corporations in fact are government entities in the sense that the government, for some public good, agrees to limit your liability so that your personal risk is limited and you can afford to be detached in a sense from what your company is actually doing. Adam Smith was against corporations (except in some limited cases) you know, because they limit liability-- which is a way of discouraging responsibility too.
If it were up to me (and this is why I'll never be president) I'd tax corporations heavily and tax partnerships and S-corporations hardly at all to encourage people to be personally invested in their own businesses and to incentivize personal responsibility and real risk-taking. I know the objection would be that would discourage capital investment; I don't think so. We think that because of the way things have always been done, but capital will follow incentives.
I also wouldn't exempt anyone from paying taxes no matter how poor. The amount charged could be token for the impoverished, but every voting citizen would see in his paycheck how much the government takes and weigh the promises of politicians accordingly.
