In the first of a series we are calling “what’s next” where we explore where the possible activity or action is on climate change, our friend Alex Flint of Alliance for Market Solutions gives the bad news—we have very little time to save Social Security—but also the good news—a carbon tax can be part of that solution.
After his being recently published on this topic in The Invading Sea, the team decided Alex would make an excellent guest to kick off this series. While there may not be high demand for a stand-alone carbon tax in the present, a time is approaching when the federal government will need a new source (actually, sources) of revenue.
“Resolving the coming Social Security crisis will require confronting a taboo that has shaped American politics for decades: new federal revenue. Lawmakers will debate raising the retirement age, cutting benefits, increasing the payroll tax rate, eliminating the cap on taxable wages and other possible remedies. Every option will be fiercely contested, politically treacherous and deeply unpopular. Millions of Americans will pay more, receive less or both,” Alex writes. “In that context, a carbon tax — dismissed as politically impossible since the 1990s — may represent something different: not an ideal solution, but a viable contributor.”