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Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

I know it is cool to hate on rich people these days but the amount of CO2 pollution created by handful of private jets is miniscule compared to the rest of the aviation industry which is still miniscule compared to general transportion, agriculture and meat industry.

Just keep the magnitude in context, I think it is still an issue but our focus needs to be appropriately allocated.

Should we also care that rich people take up more room in the airplane than the rest? Business class should be abolished?

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Me dumping a bunch of tyres into a nearby river would be absolutely negligible compared to global pollution, yes it's still not allowed. A single private jet flight is incredibly polluting yet we allow it to be exempt from pollution tax because......on a grand scale it's nothing? Hmmmmmmm.

All of your points are valid.

I guess I struggle with the hypocrisy around that fact that if we really want to curb CO2, there is a bigger fish to fry. For example, millions of people travel for pleasure on airplanes. From one point to the otherside of the globe. No one gives a damn about that, but hey! Look, rich people on fancy airplanes.

Even just today, GitHub copilot Twitter thread was full of “Rich people (Microsoft apparently) get to ignore licenses but us poor plebs have to abide by them”

Christ. I feel like I’m witnessing a mob without reason, logic and rational.

"For example, millions of people travel for pleasure on airplanes. From one point to the otherside of the globe. No one gives a damn about that, but hey! Look, rich people on fancy airplanes"

Erm, that is exactly the point of the "mob".

The common people do have to pay the tax, while flying crowded and therefore somewhat efficient - and the rich people with their own fuel wasting private jets should pay no tax at all AND have the privilege of luxery? Where is the reason for this?

"Christ. I feel like I’m witnessing a mob without reason, logic and rational. "

So maybe I am missing something, but the mob reaction seems to be very much based on logic.

"So maybe I am missing something"

So what I was missing is, that apparently commerzial Airliners do benefit from tax free fuel - but private jets do not. They have to pay taxes and a lot more than this tax is going to be initially.

So it seems the whole thing is a weird backward way to take back a bit the tax excemption on tax free airliner fuel?

People like when things are fair. To get those big wins you’re gonna have to either make things look fair or use force (i.e. guns). You won’t be able to change human society into a kind of minmaxing superintelligence.

Agreed, I want fairness as well. I’m not opposed to the taxes on private jets. I’m just opposed to the overwhelming “fuck the rich” mob tone.

Maybe I’m looking into this too much, but to me it’s unavoidable observation.

I think the mob has started to notice every time a new burden is imposed on them with a notch carved out for the ultra-wealthy.

Especially when that wealth was achieved on the back of the labor, the consumption, and (increasingly) the attention spans of the mob.

It makes sense to consider things on a per-capita basis as well as an in-total basis, because there needs to be some measure of fairness in how we do things.

I don't think anyone flies to the other side of the globe for fun anymore since Corona. And I don't think this activity will be back any time soon. Holidays where possible will be a lot more local.

> I don't think anyone flies to the other side of the globe for fun anymore since Corona. And I don't think this activity will be back any time soon. Holidays where possible will be a lot more local.

I disagree, people are very very eager to start traveling again. I know that a lot of people around me are literally going to bolt off the second they are allowed to, preferably to the farthest away destination possible. Not that there's anything wrong with that in any case (especially considering how good the vaccines are)

"Not that there's anything wrong with that in any case"

Except for climate change ...

But I also really would like to travel again, far away, so what to do.

Well, most faraway places tend to be a lot worse off than we are on the vaccination scale. This is why I think it'll take much longer.

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