I’ve already grown bored of the Paris agreement debates. People are blubbering about a deal that was nonbinding, had no enforcement mechanisms and stuck the United States with most of the bill (as usual). Trump withdrawing from the agreement is one of the few things he’s done right so far during his brief tenure.
Outside of the beltway political pundits and liberals losing their collective minds over it (and laughably saying it will cost the GOP in 2018 and 2020) are the business leaders acting as though Trump’s move was some personal betrayal.
However, when you look at that they’re saying, it’s hilarious because the people in question are smart, driven executives who run billion dollar enterprises. Their reactions, however, just come off as hebetudinous:
Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017
Disappointed with today’s decision on the Paris Agreement. Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government.
— Jeff Immelt (@JeffImmelt) June 1, 2017
Note the straw-man arguments from both. One doesn’t have to deny climate change is real, or even that climate change is man-made to realize the Paris agreement was a raw deal for the United States.
Google chimed in as well:
Disappointed with today’s decision. Google will keep working hard for a cleaner, more prosperous future for all.
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) June 1, 2017
All three executives proclaim they’ll keep working on solutions. Well, zippety-do-dah! Isn’t that quite the revelation? Here they are announcing they’ll push forward with ideas and solutions that do not require coercion by the government to do so.
They’re not idiots. It’s not the government mandate they want. It’s the government subsidies and government tax breaks they want. They gave away their hand by saying that despite the United States withdrawing from the Paris agreement, they’re going to move forward with their work. That’s a tell and all it means is they’re dejected they’re going to do the same thing but without government welfare to help them along.
I applaud their sense of entrepreneurship for not relying on that sweet government cheese to do their work.
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