Saturday 24 May 2008

Anti-Pigouvian Nation

While almost the whole world are talking about carbon-emission tax, Malaysians are harping on petrol subsidy. Talk about being behind the curve.

But then again, what do we expect from our politicians, from both sides, who are getting more and more populist and are more concerned about trivialities and power-grabbing?

Hate hate exams.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

populist politicians aren't the only problem. tax on petrol consumption would discourage use of motor vehicles and ruin the local automotive industry. similarly, having a good public transport system also works against the local automotive industry. the main problem seems to be willingness to preserve an economically unviable venture

Rinnai Agan said...

Not very sure about the state of the environmental policy in Malaysia today, I am wondering how well enforced are Malaysia's environmental regulations and how strong are the environmental agencies? I wonder if we have the capacity as yet to introduce charges (on petrol, pollution or administration) if there is no strong environmental policy framework.

The willingness to preserve inefficient ventures may be inefficient for the economy as a whole, but are there alternative industries for them to enter? And from the consumers' perspective, are there any viable fuel substitutes?

Taxes may be accompanied by inflation and may require a revaluation mechanism to be built in the system which again requires strong environmental policy and institutions to administer. Does Malaysia have these in place? Is it on top of our agenda for now?

Anonymous said...

top of our government's agenda is preserving their position in office. Screw the long term economic implications. Their current reputation is at stake. The wont live long enough to see the country go down. If they do, there will always be economists to defend their policies.

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NYPT said...

"Pls la...politics is politics....ultimately the behaviour of politicians will be the same. The only difference is the new broom sweeps clean" -Dr.Chua Soi lek at the TheStar forum not long after the Elections.

NYPT said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
NYPT said...

"what they promised in opposition, they will find that it is impossible to carry out in government because if it was possible, it would have already been done"

voltaire made that comment i think...correct me if i paraphrased him wrongly..