19% of Americans want increased gas tax

[dead0man]

Nothing will get us into smaller, more efficient cars faster than a high gas price.  If we as a nation think that's our goal, an increase in the Federal gas tax would be a viable option to consider to that end.


(I personally don't like any taxes, but this one wouldn't be the end of the world.  I wouldn't support it, but I wouldn't fight against it that hard either.)

[dead0man]

This must be the 19% that commutes via bicycle.

If 19% of Americans commuted via bicycle we wouldn't have an energy crisis.

[dead0man]

Aye, hybrid technology is a quickly maturing technology.  I still have concerns about battery disposal, life and cost.  Hopefully a new "battery" is on the horizon, it would go a long way towards curing our transportation energy problems.  We have plenty of electricity and it's relatively easy to make more (if you can get the hippies out of the way) cheaply (again, relatively) and cleanly.  We have great electric motors that can easily pull a car at greater rates than we see today (or ever) as the electric motor is a very mature technology.  It's storing that electricity that is the problem, hop that hurdle and gas stations will become rare in a decade or so.  Hopefully they'll never outlaw the ICE powered personal transportation though.  It will probably become what the horse is today, a toy of the rich and a tool for the ultra poor.

How's that for a hijack?

[dead0man]

If you really want to spur the desire for more efficient vehicles, you need to turn out the technology faster and in a larger volume in order to decrease the overall costs. 

If they could do that, why aren't they?  The fact of that matter is that, last I read in Car and Driver, they were still losing thousands of dollars everytime they sell a hybrid.  It's been true of small cars in general for years.  It costs roughly the same to build your regular F150 as it does to build your average Focus, but the Focus sells for half what the F150 does.  The money makers are your "fancy" trucks like Escalades and what not.  Hybrids add a whole 'nother expensive layer of manufacturing and R&D.  The price will come down and the technology will improve in time, but flooding the market today with something you lose thousands of dollars on every sale would be a bad thing to do.

..and I won't have to buy you a car.  If you use a car, eventually you'll have to replace it.  As people replace cars with more efficient ones, over time it will make a difference.  I think it already is in places like California.

[dead0man]

I don't like gas taxes, for the same reason I don't like sales taxes.

I couldn't agree more - gas and sales taxes should be eliminated and replaced by much higher income tax rates on the rich.

I for one would not stop driving my large v-8 car just because of, say $4/gallon gas.  Then again I get it for free so it doesn't matter.

All user fees should be eliminated in exchange for a progressive income tax system.  That way, the middle and lower classes pay less in taxes as a percentage of their income.

Then we can use the money that rich people pay in that would have come from an increased gas tax to build a high speed rail system which would do wonders for this country.

Selfish assholes like opebo would still drive the smog machines.  May I suggest using the state to make him stop?

[dead0man]

Suspending the gas tax is a great idea!  Why, the best way to deal with our gigantic demand for oil is to increase demand for it!

That wouldn't increase demand.  It'd lower cost.

errrrr what?

[dead0man]

Nothing will get us into smaller, more efficient cars faster than a high gas price.  If we as a nation think that's our goal, an increase in the Federal gas tax would be a viable option to consider to that end.

If hybrid cars were truly more efficient, than Americans would gradually transition to them without help from a gas tax hike

Like they did in the 80s and 90s?  (not to hybrids of course,  but to other efficient vehicles that sold like matches in hell)  I'm not suggesting a gas tax is the only way or the best way to do it, but low priced gas has shown to NOT be a motivator to Americans to switch to more efficient vehicles.

[dead0man]

Some of your left leaning friends aren't going to like that.

[dead0man]

In a free society, people who have nothing to do with a crime would not pay to incarcerate them. A poor person would not steal cake from an armed person.

So, you're saying, in a free society, that if I wanted a raise and had to use a gun to "encourage" my boss, that would be okay?  After all, it's a free society... or, maybe that's a social-darwinistic anarchy.

Dude, you are an EXPERT at reading into people's post exactly what you think they are saying even if it has nothing to do with anything.  I'm pretty sure English is your first language, what's the deal?

[dead0man]

That's exactly what the Nigerian system is.

Anyone who's anyone has their private guards.

The 99.9% who can't afford private guards should not have been born poor.

The court system is private, since you can pay them (in brown paper bags) to reach a verdict you like.

Sounds good to me.

Nigeria isn't capitalist to my knowledge.

Nigeria most certainly is capitalist. It's a rather extreme example of unbridled capitalism gone wild, actually.

That's only true if one doesn't know what "capitalist" means.