A recent headline on CNN.com implies that the tax and energy bill recently passed by the Senate will save Americans on electricity bills. While touting all of the tax credits the bill will offer, the story engages in a massive evasion. The bill, the story states,
contains a bevy of tax incentives aimed at pushing consumers, developers, small businesses and others towards clean energy and more efficient energy usage — helping bring down the cost of buying electric vehicles, heat pumps, water heaters, rooftop solar panels and more.
In other words, the government is going to bribe us with tax deductions and tax credits to spend our money the way public officials think appropriate. If Americans thought that purchasing electric vehicles, heat pumps, and solar panels make financial, we’d be buying them. But we aren’t, at least not to the level the government wants us to, and so, the bill will make such purchases more financially sound.
As an example, the bill will offer up to $11,500 in tax credits for purchasing an electric vehicle. However, the bill also forces automakers to move their electric vehicle supply chains out of China. This will add to the automaker’s cost, and in turn, drive up the cost of an electric vehicle.
Later in the story, it is noted that the bill will offer tax credits to cover 30 percent of the cost of a rooftop solar system with batter storage. The average cost of such a system is $20,000. Even with the tax credit, a homeowner will have to pay $14,000 for a solar system. However, the article assures us “that upfront cost will result in energy bill savings every year and add value to a home.” The article doesn’t bother to tell us what the savings might be or the payback period.
According to Nerdwallet.com, the average U.S. household spent $122 per month on electricity. Even if a homeowner reduced his electricity bill to zero by installing a solar system, it would take almost ten years to pay for itself. This fact is omitted from the story, but it is a crucial part of the context.
Leonard Peikoff explained the destructive nature of context-dropping:
Whenever you tear an idea from its context and treat it as though it were a self-sufficient, independent item, you invalidate the thought process involved. If you omit the context, or even a crucial aspect of it, then no matter what you say it will not be valid . . . .
To tout only the benefits of the bill while ignoring its costs is to engage in context-dropping. To look only at the immediate benefits while ignoring the long-term harm is a massive evasion.