No economy, no society, no family, no individual has ever been taxed into prosperity – EVER.
In the best case, a tax is a way for Government to fund its function.
In the worst case, our case, a tax is a punishment for the prosperous and what enables Government inefficiency at every level.
Now that Americans are apparently driving less, the Governments aren’t making as much money.
Their solution? Tax more.
That’s right, while the cost of a gallon of gas is now in the more reasonable $1.50 range instead of $4.00, the Government has apparently felt the pinch of losing out on windfall profits. Michigan, California, and other states all plan on raising the tax on gas to make up for the shortfall.
ARE THEY KIDDING!? With the cost of a gallon of regular in Michigan around $1.60, they plan on hiking the tax burden to 18% on the wholesale cost of fuel. That would make it the highest fuel tax IN THE NATION.
You’ve done what they wanted, what they recommended! You’re driving less! You’re driving the fuel efficient cars that they forced the automakers to produce! You aren’t falling for the allure of the Red Tag Sale $55,000 dollar Cadillac Escalade anymore! How do they respond? TAX YOU MORE.
Look folks, when the raw power of this economy is unleashed – there really isn’t anything that can stop it. Sure, things are bad now, and people are justifiably shy of pulling the trigger. Only months ago, fuel was over $4. Sales in just about every industry are down. The stock market is down. Companies are going under, and we’ve got an inbound President hell bent on being the one to prove that a nation CAN be taxed into prosperity.
People aren’t sure, they’re flat out scared to death. The best thing the Government can do at this point is to STAY THE F OUT OF IT. Clean up their own house, and leave ours alone. Stop handing out our money to and buying businesses that only know how to fail. Start cutting the fat and stop taxing us to stay fat. We can come out of this situation with a renaissance, or more malaise. The key is keeping Government out of our wallets, out of our cars, and as far out of our lives as possible.
Since I doubt they’ll back off any time soon, I’ll be investing in tin foil hats. How about you?
The problem is that Detroit ISN’T producing the fuel-efficient cars we need, yet (And there’s no sign that they’ve actually woken up and smelled the coffee and intend to).
Americans have gotten used to paying more for gas. (In point of fact, they’ve gotten used to paying for gas what nearly the entire rest of the world pays for gas, excepting nations which are OPEC states themselves). That “paying higher” has spurred them towards DEMANDING fuel-efficiency. You may claim that $1.50 is “reasonable” but to the entire rest of the civilized world, that’s about 20% of what they pay for gas.
The best thing we can do to keep the trend towards fuel-efficiency going is to keep the gas prices higher but not TOO high (nobody’s advocating keeping gas prices at $4.00+, to my knowledge). If people are “used” to paying $4.00, then paying $2.50 should still be a treat, and the remainder can go specifically towards projects for increasing fuel-efficiency. The tax income on that is in hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
Here’s the best part… the more fuel-efficient the cars become, the lower the demand will be for gas, driving the price of gas down even further. Basic economic principle, supply and demand. When the demand decreases, the price will have to decrease to follow.
I’m with ya on “not giving money to companies who don’t know how to do business” and that means that the Big Three should flounder and die, mostly because their idea of “fuel efficiency” is a 25MPG SUV instead of a 20MPG one.
So what to do with those hundreds of billions of gas-tax dollars? A “Manhattan-Project” style push for a usable electric vehicle. And since it’s a government project, the technology, once completed, will be in the public domain, free for use by any manufacturer who wants to do so.
Believe me, my anarcho-capitalist self shudders to say this but this actually isn’t all that bad an idea….
Americans were definitely trained to pay higher prices, but we slowly hit our limit on the way to 4 bucks a gallon, and the market has responded with reasonable costs for fuel.
As for why the rest of the world pays more, name your poison… Taxes, demand, regulations, etc… It’s no surprise that were Socialism reigns, people generally pay more for things than Capitalists do… Like why an American car, built by unionized workers generally costs a crapload more than a better engineered, better built, more reliable, and more efficient import.
In regard to keeping the trend towards fuel efficiency – you’re not suggesting that the price of fuel be artificially kept high to spur innovation, are you? I can’t imagine any justifiable reason to trust the Government with more money in an era of windfall profits, a failing economy, and a promise of higher taxes on everything coming down the pike. Government cannot be trusted to spend our money better than we can. I don’t care how good the salesman is, you cannot tax a society into prosperity. Efficiency, maybe – but I’d rather be prosperous and drive a pickup than cram my 250lb ass into a microcar like the Europeans in the name of trying to prove a point.
Yes – as has been proven in recent events, lowered demand will drive the price of fuel down even further. My question is – do you honestly believe that the artificially hiked price which spurred such innovation will actually be removed once that mystical utopia that has been promised unto us by the political, social, and environmental elites has been reached?
The solution to inneficiency is not to pass control to an even larger and more inneficient bureaucracy. It’s just passing the buck on a grand scale and will only lead to further promotion of the status quo which equates to screwing people like me. The big 3 should have been left to bleed and die. They’ve gotten bailed out before, and each time the situation gets worse because bad ideas keep being promoted while everyone else (read: not built or owned by GM, Ford, or Chrysler) still manages to turn a profit on efficient vehicles to the same Americans that aren’t buying a $55,000 Escalade.
Bad idea! Bad idea! Bad idea!
If the big three had been allowed to wither and die, then I would agree that “efficiency is driving the market forces”, and would rescind my support for a gas-tax-to-fund-efficiency.
However, what I’m suggesting is that if we’re going to artificially skew the market forces AWAY from efficiency (by propping up companies who aren’t making the fuel-efficient vehicles, at reasonable prices, that Americans are demanding), then we need to counter that government-interference with a “counter-interference” TOWARDS efficiency, and a gas-tax is a way to do that.
You and I are in complete agreement that a “perfect world” involves letting the inefficient fucktards in Detroit wither and die, demonstrating to the producers that gas-guzzlers don’t sell, and influencing them, in that fashion, to produce efficient vehicles or die.
But since we don’t live in that perfect world (oh how I wish we did) and we have politicians (on both sides of the aisle) who are short-sighted enough to think they can play God with the markets, then we need to try and mitigate the long-term market-effects of their meddling.
Counter government-interference with more government-interference? Brilliant!
It challenges my Utopian/Marxist leanings but I have to say I agree, this is a case where GOVERNMENT CAN FIX EVERYTHING
IF THEY TAKEIF WE GIVE THEM ENOUGH MONEY!FACE/PALM/OMGWTFBBQ