Al's New Tax Plan

Al "Earth Tones" Gore has come up with a new tax plan designed to replace taxes on employees and replace them with taxes on "pollution":

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Monday suggested taxing carbon dioxide emissions instead of employees' pay in a bid to stem global warming.

"Penalizing pollution instead of penalizing employment will work to reduce that pollution," Gore said in a speech at New York University School of Law.

The pollution tax would replace all payroll taxes, including those for Social Security and unemployment compensation, Gore said. He said the overall level of taxation, would remain the same.

"Instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees it would discourage business from producing more pollution," Gore said.

This is obviously driven by emotions and not rational thought, because how in the world would you go about figuring what each employer was contributing in greenhouse gases? Sure, a factory of some sort wouldn't be that tough, but what about an office with 10 or so employees, some of whom carpool, others who use public transportation, and others who drive alone. Would that be counted toward their "pollution" charge? Is there a per copy charge for using the copier or fax machine? How about the employee who has an extra cup of coffee? Is there a "rainforest depletion" charge?

It's pure unadulterated nuts.