Adam Smith & The EU's Global Warming Arrogance

The socialists at the EU really are an arrogant bunch. Knowing as they do what is best for Europe without need of consulting their electorate, they of course know what is best for the rest of the world also, including the U.S. For example, the EU partially fund the ABA to conduct its propaganda offensive against the death penalty in the U.S. Does that seem like a gross imposition into our internal affairs?

And indeed, just within the past year we have witnessed the unelected EU President send a letter to the popularly elected Texas governor instructing the governor that the it is a settled issue that the death penalty is not a deterrent and should be eradicated. It must be nice to go through life without having to examine any facts that challenge one’s deeply held belief. Such is the modern left.

The European socialists in Brussels see no problem with their attempt to make an end run around the electorate in Texas – the same people who could easily vote for a candidate who wishes to abolish the death penalty should they desire. But "democracy" has no worth as a concept in Brussels; its only use is as an Orwellian label. The EU is making sure that their own electorate have no say in the creation of the EU socialist super-state that, with the "Reform Treaty" of Lisbon, has just come into being. Indeed, to complain about the lack of democratic vote is to "show contempt for dignity of Parliament." This gives you some flavor of the incredible hubris of the EU.

But all of that pales in comparison to the damage the EU socialists, in their arrogance, are poised to inflict both internally and on the world.

The EU, which has taken global warming out of the realm of science and debate and made it a shibboleth of their constitutional law, is gearing "up to produce its much-heralded strategy on "climate change" – expected on 23 January." According to EU Referendum:

The core of this strategy will be the 20 percent reduction in emissions by 2020 and the 10 percent biofuel quota, the combination of which – with the other measures the commission is considering – will have a profound effect on our economy, our own personal lifestyles and global politics in general.

This is a program that will take billions out of the EU economy while making no contribution to efficiency, only adding to the cost of the production of goods and services. So as the EU shackles the economies of its member provinces with changes to combat global warming, how will the EU remain competitive in the global market?

It was completely predictable to anyone who watches the EU that their first thought would be to transfer their economic costs and use taxation as a type of global social policy to enforce EU beliefs on the global heretics. Thus it is no surprise at all that this today should appear in The Times:

A row has erupted in Brussels over proposals to introduce a carbon tax on goods entering the European Union from countries that fail to take measures to curb carbon dioxide emissions.

The tax would hit powerful emerging market exporters, such as China, which do not comply with the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The proposal is opposed by Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner, who fears that it would fall foul of World Trade Organisation rules.

Sources at Mr Mandelson’s office said the proposal was "dead", while a spokesman for Stavros Dimas, the Environment Commissioner, said several drafts of the proposal were being discussed and debated. "It’s at the beginning of the process," he said.

The Trade Commissioner’s spokesman argued that the proposed tax was "too complicated" and would create problems with the United States, which has not signed the Kyoto treaty. . .

Do read the entire article. One does not need a PhD in economics to see that such taxes would have a depressive effect on the world economy and would, if imposed, likely set off a trade war. But such is the arrogance and the insanity to be found amongst our friendly, unelected socialist allies. It’s the Goracle versus Adam Smith. Smith will win in the end, but the Goracle and his EU acolytes can do incredible damage in the short run.