Letter: Whether 'tis nobler in the lungs to suffer

July 22, 2016

If we're going to allude to Shakespeare in the debate over a carbon tax, let's bring out the iambic pentameter. A reader responds.

Letter: Carbon tax's benefits (July 19, 2016)

Editor's Note: Our July 18 op-ed on the carbon tax ("To tax or not to tax") continues to draw reader response, including this treatment from Jeffrey Rissman, who notes that "Hamlet was the Prince of Denmark, and Denmark is known for wind turbines...." 

Those needing a refresher on the original soliloquy might check here.

Re:  To Tax or Not To Tax (July 18, 2016) 

To the Editor:

To tax or not to tax-that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the lungs to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous emissions,

Or to take arms against a sea of polluters,

And, by opposing, end them. To tax, to regulate-

No more-and by a law to say we end

The heart disease and the thousand unnatural shocks

That flesh is heir to-'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To tax, to regulate-

To regulate, perchance to redistribute. Aye, there's the rub,

For in that taxation of carbon what dividends may come,

When we have cast off this fossil energy,

Must give us pause.

—Jeffrey Rissman

San Francisco, Calif.