The Gas Tax

You should really be forced to go live in a country where you have to deal with real tyranny if this is the best example in the entire world you can think of.

 

Remind me where in the constitution you are guaranteed the "freedom to choose."

 

I support this tax, and greatly increased fuel economy standards.

I also support people driving smaller cars.


Fear me, ghettocheeze. I am your nemesis.

 

It is one thing to require that all cars made after 20XX get a minimum of Y miles per gallon. It is something very different to hit the consumer in the nose.

What about those people that cannot afford a different car? Right now, I cannot afford to buy a car. My car has been paid off for 3 years. It gets an average of 23 to 25 MPG in rush hour traffic. If gas goes to $5 a gallon, my once a week fillup will triple in price.

 

If the market price of gas is $1.50 a gallon, you are ok with a 233% tax?

 

People will not vote to be taxed more. See Bush, George circa 1992.

 

Not sure I see this ever happening, regardless of the merits. Anyone who wants a second term would think twice about this.

 

Freedom implies choice. Freedom without choice is just wordplay. And since most of the Constitution is about restricting government from infringing on personal freedom, most of the Constitution is about guaranteeing the "freedom to choose."

(If you're American, I'm embarrassed that you asked that.)

 

Definitely a huge impediment. A modest increase is more likely, probably with as confusing a name for it as the new Congress and Administration can come up with. The word "tax" is unlikely to appear!

 

I understand what you're saying, but in a world where I don't have the freedom to choose my cable company, why should I have the freedom to choose the type of car I drive.

Of course, this is entirely irrelevant because as others have already pointed out, adding a "sin tax" to gas does not mean you cannot choose the type of car you drive.

I'm completely in favor of a gas tax and have been for a long time.

 

Exactly. We are all slaves and it is Un American because they tax cigarettes and alcohol at a higher rate than food.

 

I was responding to this quote:

So government has first handicapped the auto industry with CAFE standards and outright dictated the design of a car from behind the desk of bureaucracy.

If he has problems with CAFE standards, I'm wondering if he also has problems with pollution or safety standards. And if not, why not?

 

Well a large semi does more damage to a road than say a thousand or more cars even if the semi went equivalent miles as each passenger car.. All passenger cars including the Hummer subsidize large trucks. It has to do with the fact that the large trucks flex the concrete and steel in the road bed. It is not a question of the tires wearing out the top of the highway.

I guess you could say the gas tax works well to have SUV's and smaller passenger card subsidize the private trucking industry.

 

We've been through this before. The OP's aerticles allude to this concept. The government could use the extra gas tax to reduce your social security tax, sales tax or self employment social security whatever. You can use that money if you choose to buy a more fuel efficient car or just recycle it to the gas tax. You will be free to choose.

 

I'm 100% behind this since I just sold my car.

Also, while were at it, let's tax the hell out of bullets, tampons, yachts, duvet covers, dolls, high school musical 3 DVDs, country music and oprah.

 

It's not really a "price floor" (a minimum price that can legally be charged). It's a tax that applies at all prices.


I have a couple of problems with your proposed solution.

First, by exempting commercial vehicles from taxation, you fail to address the externalities that these vehicles create, externalities that are just as real as those caused by non-commercial vehicles.

Second, by taxing vehicles and not gasoline, you address the problem indirectly. The issue is gasoline consumption, not vehicle choice. A person who owns an SUV but drives it sparingly causes less pollution, danger to other drivers, etc. than a person who owns a Prius and drives it ten times as much. A tax on "gas guzzlers" would not provide anyone with an incentive to drive less; it would only lead them to buy a more efficient car. A gas tax would do both.

Here's an article by a very reputable economist who advocates for a higher gas tax: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116131055641498552.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

 

Since I don't think anyone's brought this up yet, I'll do so now. Here's an important thing about the gas tax to consider.

The burden of taxation is shared by both producers and consumers. A higher tax basically means higher prices for consumers and lower revenues for producers. When a government is thinking about raising or lowering a tax, it must consider how much of the tax is paid by each party.

In the case of gasoline, it appears that the burden of taxation falls mainly on suppliers- some of which are domestic oil companies, many of which are foreign countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. What this means is that an increase of, say, 50 cents in the gas tax would cause a smaller rise in prices at the pump, while the rest would take the form of lost revenues for producers of gasoline. All 50 cents would become government revenue, which could be spent on infrastructure or on cuts in some of the taxes (payroll tax, income tax, etc) that distort the market in a bad way (as I've argued before, the gas tax can potentially distort markets in a good way).

 

The cable that goes through your neighbors yard, under/over streets, and into your house is owned by a cable company. It's really a lot different situation.

Agreed. I think it's a stupid idea, but not for the reasons stated.

 

Hasn't there been 3 pages of explanation already?

I will say, it might be that a high gas tax is a bad idea and there are good arguments against it, but that high gas taxes are unAmerican or a persecution are not among those good arguments.