chp1: smart market fixes

1 files changed, 24 insertions, 29 deletions

diff --git a/chapter1.md b/chapter1.md
index a5d45fd..cb07ef8 100644
--- a/chapter1.md
+++ b/chapter1.md
@@ -264,33 +264,32 @@ remained largely academic, with little impact on politics, and indeed a vague
 grasp on what de-growth policy would actually mean in practice or who you could
 possibly convince to make it happen. [@vansintjan-2019; @cosme-2017]
 
-Another favourite of green rhetors is to propose smart market-based policies
-like carbon taxes, aimed at tweaking the incentives for private capital to nudge
-the market into financing economic transformation. \[EXAMPLE\]
-
-Admittedly, this is a little better than proposing austerity, and has made a
-little political inroad. The US, EU, and UK have all implemented carbon markets
-and carbon taxes, although the carbon markets have widely been recognised to be
-distorting and counter-productive, and the carbon prices so far have been set
-too low to have any noticeable impact. Making this approach work still has some
-very tall obstacles to climb. As soon as carbon prices are set high enough to
-bite, without state intervention to redistribute investment, the cost of carbon
-pricing is likely to fall hardest on the poorest. This is not politically
-sustainable.
-
-This was decisively demonstrated in 2018 \[ALSO GORDON BROWN'S FUEL PRICE
-ESCALATOR?\], after French President Emmanuel Macron attempted to raise fuel
-taxes, purportedly in an attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions \[EVIDENCE\].
-This move triggered an enormous wave of protests across France, symbolised by
-the protester's uniform, the _gilet jaune_. Despite Macron's strong political
+Another favourite of green rhetors is to propose smart market-based policies,
+mainly taxing carbon, aimed at tweaking the incentives for private capital to
+nudge the market into financing economic transformation. It's hard to disagree
+with eloquent experts like Sir Dieter Helm [@legacy] who argues that a
+sustainable economy must observe what he calls the 'polluter-pays principle.'
+However, too often, smart market tweaks are proposed which exacerbate market
+injustice, effectively levying the cost of economic transformation on those
+least able to pay. This is not politically sustainable.
+
+In March 1993, for example, Norman Lamont announced a fuel price 'escalator',
+promising to gradually increase fuel duty, partly in order to reduce carbon
+dioxide emissions. A tobacco escalator followed in November. However, amidst
+criticism that the fuel duty was regressive and ineffective and protests from
+lorry drivers, Gordon Brown was forced in March 2000 to rescind the escalator
+and reduce fuel duty [@parl-fuel-escalator; @bbc-fuel-duty-cut]. In 2018, the
+'gilets jaunes' protest movement brought France to a standstill, the protests
+having been triggered by the annual implementation of a similar fuel price
+escalator scheme bequeathed to Emmanuel Macron by the previous government,
+similarly motivated by environmental concerns. Despite Macron's strong political
 position at the beginning of the protests, he was forced to roll back the tax
-increases alongside other concessions to the protesters \[EVIDENCE\].
+increases alongside other concessions to the protesters [@bbc-gilets-jaune].
 
-So, while smart market fixes might work in theory, we're still waiting for a
-credible vision for how they might be politically sustainable. Thus, here too,
-green rhetoric has failed to demonstrate to their audience that the change they
-advocate will be good for them, and thus their proposals are politically
-impossible.
+So, while smart market fixes might work in theory, they are too often divorced
+from any politically sustainable programme. Thus, here too, green rhetoric has
+failed to demonstrate to their audience that the change they advocate will be
+good for them, and thus their proposals are politically impossible.
 
 Taking another approach, many green rhetors advocate for a simple programme:
 listen to the science, then act rationally. This call to action suggests that
@@ -476,9 +475,6 @@ catastrophic language is counter-productive in this context.
 ## TODO
 
 - Find quotes and page numbers in @{back-to-nature} and @{heat}
-- Find an example of a green rhetor promoting smart market-based fixes
-- Evidence: gilet jaune sparked by Macron attempting to implement a smart market-based climate fix
-- Evidence: Macron had to back down after the gilet jaune protests
 - Explore and evidence: the green movement is on the back foot
 - Evidence: environmental NGOs don't do mass mobilisation
 - Find examples of 'listen to the scientists' and 'science denial' discourses
@@ -487,4 +483,3 @@ catastrophic language is counter-productive in this context.
 - Explore: magical green proposals
 - Explore: PMC people feel powerless because the actions they have taken aren't very effective
 - Explore: how does 'listen to the scientists' and 'science denial' discourse lead to action?
-- Explore: Gordon Brown's fuel-price escalator