I love deadlines, I love the whooshing sound they make as they pass by
This is by far my favorite quote by Douglas Adams and is probably one of the best pieces of advice for life, politics, and finances I have ever heard.
When you have a goal of something you want to do, like “I want to buy a house soon” it is better to go start the process now, instead of waiting for it to fall in your lap. Things never fall in your lap. When you see something that needs to be done, you need to just do it.
If you are planning a good policy to solve an important problem, the sooner that policy can be implemented in practice, the better. If given a choice between “We will be 100% carbon neutral by 2050, though we don’t know how we will do it” and “we will start putting a price on carbon today which will reduce emissions today and on into the future” it is very clear which policy is better.
Similar to this quote by Douglas Adams is the importance of making SMART targets. Goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
Let’s score several policy ideas by these SMART targets
- 100% carbon neutral by 2050 (a popular goal): 24/50
- Specific: Doesn’t state how much to reduce carbon emissions in 2023, 2/10.
- Measurable: Same problem: 2/10.
- Achievable: Definitely. 10/10
- Relevant: Yes, we need to do it. 10/10
- Timely: The timeline is too long. 0/10.
- Carbon tax which will increase annually at a specified rate to reduce emissions, with adjustments if emissions do not match annual targets. (Basically Initiative 732) 50/50
- Specific: Yes, it is very clear how much the tax will be every year which directly determines emission decline: 10/10
- Measurable: Yes, we know how much the tax will be every year, and we can measure our progress every year. 10/10
- Achievable: Definitely. 10/10
- Relevant: Definitely. 10/10
- Timely: Yes, it has a plan which clearly states what will happen every year. 10/10.
Policies need to be clear about what amount the policy will be using and when it will be using it. It cannot just have a deadline that is too far off to be able to accurately judge if you are making enough progress every year.
In your personal life, a goal could be “I want to save money for retirement” in which case the easiest thing to do is set up automatic payments every paycheck to your 401k. If you are looking for a job, set a goal for how many people you will talk to and how many applications you will send in every day. This follows the SMART strategy and doesn’t just set an arbitrary deadline which will be easy to miss.