Tax changes will help, but not truly allow us to adapt to climate change

Some see tax as the most
 appropriate way to adopt
to climate change.

Some argue the tax structure will allow us to adapt to the changes settling upon humanity because of climate change.

It will, it is argued, allow for an increased tax on those goods that are worsening climate change and along with that reduce, or eliminate, taxes on those things that do no damage our environment.

Considered with little more than cursory attention that makes absolute sense, but it overlooks, conveniently by some it might be said, some of the realities of modern life.

Historically wealthy people have paid the least amount of tax – an Australian multi-millionaire is on record as saying he doesn’t pay any tax – while those on the lower stratum of earner pay, proportionally, easily the most.

Climate change abatement will only be effective if everyone, from those at the pinnacle of the economic structure to those at those scrambling at the bottom contribute equally to what is, without question, the most significant difficulty humans have ever confronted.

Changes to the tax structure will, or course, have a broad impact, but not to any great extent upon the wealthy, the powerful and the decision makers who largely control what happens around the world.

The Four-Hour Work Day is littered with difficulties and unforeseen consequences, but beyond its prime purpose of creating a structure that will allow us to adapt to our changing climate, it will bring with it a clear sense, and reality, of equity.

The idea of equity is an interesting one that is celebrated by most when it is no more than lip-service or pleasant phrases, but it quickly falls from favour when its demands become reality and those who enjoy life’s fineries are asked to adjust their lifestyles to one more akin to those who fumble and stumble in a life built around exploitation.  

The idea of the Four-Hour Work Day is to make everyone fundamentally poorer and because of that slow, dramatically, our consumptive behaviours and that, naturally, becomes a natural climate change abatement program as almost immediately we begin living lives far less dependent on machines and processes that are worsening the world’s climate.

A beautiful spin-off of such a dynamic would be that those from the upper-echelons of the hierarchy of wealth suddenly have a much clearer and succinct understanding of how those from near, or at the bottom, of the financial pile live.

Utopian it might be, but maybe that practical familiarity might engender a certain bonding; a bonding that will illustrate that we are all in this together.

Climate change adaptation is not about fine words, it is not about changing a few light globes, it is not about returning to a bow-and-arrow-like life, rather it is about taking what we have learned and what we know and applying it with kindness to a different way of living and that begins with the introduction of the Four-Hour Work Day.