if it's impossible to affect change as a single person, then why do anything at all? Why bother to vote? I hear this logic all the time and it doesn't make sense to me.

• "Don't bother making personal changes, voting will save us!"
• people vote for Trump
• "Wait not like that"

That's not to say that public policy is pointless. "Tragedy of the commons" tells us that regulation is necessary. But I think the framing is wrong. The culprit here is not oil companies. It's oil. If you tell people "oil companies are evil", and tax the oil companies more, these people are just going to get mad when the taxes trickle down to them in the form of higher gas prices.

The correct framing is "Oil and gas cost more to us, than the cost of simply digging it out of the ground. The added taxes are to reflect the true cost". Then people will understand why gas prices need to go up.

Then add on some Infographics and memes that show how much more efficient public transit is. How solar panels pay off over the long term. Etc. Because personal responsibility does in fact make a difference.

Just a friendly heads up, it's affect, not effect.

The way I remember it is affect is an action, and effect is the result of an action. English is dumb.

I was confidently incorrect. See below.