What kind of tax system would benefit the environment and the people the most?

The economic principle I examined was people usually respond to incentives in predictable ways. There are many situations where this economic principle can be applied to the real world. For instance, while studying the effects of taxes on the environment, I found many examples of this principle. First, consumption taxes offer an incentive to those who abuse dwindling or harmful resources to use less. This shows that corrective taxes must be used to change people’s consumption behavior. We can't rely on the goodness of people so action must be taken to fix the problem. Second, the greatest incentive is money. If it cost more to do something that is hurting the environment, many people will stop doing it or do less of it. This demonstrates that an easy way to change behaviors is by offering an essential good, in this case money. Third, in developing countries governments provide no incentive to make long term investments like planting trees or installing energy saving technology. This means that individuals can use any means necessary in order to profit. This allows people in developing countries to especially hurt the environment. With little consequences and an entire population struggling to support themselves, people often overlook harmful effects on the environment. Overall, you can see that in order to change the behavior of a population incentives must be offered, and the people will usually respond accordingly.