Gas Taxes, and the result they never mention
I also would probably support increasing the tax on gasoline to the point that demand for it goes down.
This is an idea constantly floated about, and like gun control, sounds reasonable to many people. Raise the price of gas (by higher taxes), and people will use less. People will take fewer trips, etc.,etc, and so we'll have more gas to use, and having more gas means the price will go down, due to the law of supply and demand, right?
Well, it's a nice story, but it leaves out a few things that just might be important to some of us. One thing is that "recreational use" of gasoline that they want to discourage. On one hand, there are a great many people who do not use large amounts, or hardly any gas "recreationally". I'm talking about the poor working class stiffs what are getting by, but not really well off. Lower middle class, if you will. People who use their cars and trucks for work, getting to work, and getting to the grocery store once a week. The folks that aren't getting govt assistance (they earn too much) but don't have a lot of "disposable income" either. These people get absolutely hammered when the price of a basic necessity doubles (as gas has) their earnings do not, and cannot keep up. And most of them are stuck driving the rigs they've got, older and less fuel efficient, costing them even more to keep running day to day, because they cannot afford the payments on a new car. The increased fuel efficiency of newer cars doesn't cover or significantly offset the cost of car and insurance payments, even at today's gas prices.
Most of these people are not located in major cities. The live in the smaller cities, in towns, in small towns, and out in the country. They cannot benefit from inner city mass transit, except by driving 20 or 30 miles in order to take the bus!!! And the soccer moms driving their kids all over town to go to this class/sport/activity in their gas guzzling SUVs? Tale a look around. They carpool already, in huge numbers, and while the raises in fuel prices hurt, they have enough reserve income to adjust. They gripe, and maybe buy generic peanut butter instead of the name brand, but that's about it. They have the money so they don't have to worry about which is more important, getting to work for a week, or eating meat that week. The middle and upper classes that use "all that fuel" recreationally aren't going to stop overnight. Many won't stop at all, or even cut back, even though it is more expensive, as they have the money to play with.
And the other side of the coin, if the increased gas tax actually does stop people from driving when they need not, from taking those recreational trips, then all that money that they pump into the economy when on those trips goes away as well. What then for the hotels, restaurants, shops theme parks, even national parks and monuments, all those places that depend on tourist dollars as a significant portion of their income? Beach resorts ans ski resorts as well. Where is the money for them going to come from when you get people to stop taking trips because the gas is too high? And the people working those resorts are going to be doubly screwed, having to pay high gas to get to work, and facing reduced hours or even their jobs going away entirely. Not to mention the ripple effect from all kinds of businesses (and especially food producers) having to raise prices even further to balance the increased cost of doing business. We are seeing it already, and not too many people are happy about it. Raising the gas prices even more through in increase in taxes will only make this bad situation far worse! And it certainly won't do anything to make people feel better about the people in government, who they will (rightly) see as adding to their troubles.
Upping the gas tax (in addition to the runaway market) will only inconvenience the well to do, and the really well off won't even notice. The rest of us are going to get hammered! And it will hit hardest on suburban and rural America. The "fly over" part of the country that so many politicians only care about during election cycles. And sometimes not even then.
If they think we are clinging to our religion and our guns now, just wait until the effects of increased gas taxes hit. I've got a compact car, new in 02. You couldn't get $20 gas in it when I bought it, the tank wasn't big enough. Today $20 is barely half a tank. If my wages had gone up like that, I wouldn't complain (much), but they didn't. Everything I
have to buy has gone up hugely (and with no end in sight) leaving me and a lot of other folks precious little for those things I
want to buy, unless I do it on credit. And that isn't turning out to be such a good idea either.
Sorry for the rant, but this is one subject where we all need to do some careful thought before just agreeing with it. Like gun control, the folks you think it is a good idea and reasonable are the ones least likely to be affected by it directly. We don't mindlessly repeat the anti gunner's talking points (because they are senseless), we shouldn't repeat we are in favor of a hike in fuel taxes, to reduce consumption, without thinking it all the way through.
