Private jets receive ridiculous tax relief that hurt the environment

The blue jeans and T-shirts of the global elite are no more comfortable than those worn by the middle class. They drink the same coffee and carry the same smartphones. But a(n) ________ is growing between the rich and the rest when they fly. Ordinary folk ________ sleeplessly into cheap seats. The elite stretch out Hat, taking naps. This would be no one else’s business but for two things. First, private jets are horribly polluting. Second, they are often and ________ subsidized (补贴).

Private airlines were ________ hard by the global financial crisis, when both companies and individuals sought to reduce expenses. But now private jets are booming again, partly because new booking services and shared-ownership schemes are cutting the cost of going private and ________ busy executives away from first— and business-class seats on regular flights. But the boom is also a result of tax relief, which is even more ________ than those offered to ordinary airlines. America’s rules are ________ still. Its tax reform allowed individuals and companies to avoid paying 100% of the costs of a new or used private jet against their federal taxes, creating extraordinarily cheap jet purchases.

Flying on a private jet can help ________ on time for those whose time is extraordinarily valuable. Since companies can avoid paying their corporate-tax bills by presenting how much these flights cost them, in some countries the use of a private jet is a tax-free ________ for executives. But a growing volume of research suggests that flying them ________ is often a waste of money for shareholders. The jets are often used to fly to places where corporate seniors are more likely to have holiday homes than business meetings. ________, users of such planes are more likely to commit deception: a careless attitude to other people’s money sometimes shades into complete criminality. The environmental effects of corporate jets are awful. The emissions for new supersonic business jets under development will be many times higher. Amazingly, these emissions are largely ________. Airlines are not covered by the Paris agreement to limit climate change, and most private jets are ________ from CORSIA, a carbon-offsetting (碳补偿) scheme involving most airlines.

All air travel is bad for the environment. The tax breaks for cooking the planet in this way cannot be ________. They should all be abandoned. Carbon emissions should be ________, not subsidised by the sleepless masses and the even less fortunate souls who never fly.