"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"NOYB" wrote in message
k.net...


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
Still waiting for an answer, NOYB:

Do YOU have any bright ideas for getting lazy thinkers to reconsider
the
types of cars they buy, or how they use those cars? Or, is everything
just
fine the way it is?


I'd impose much stiffer gas guzzler taxes on vehicles before I'd tax
gasoline. If the vehicle is necessary for business, I'd make the gas
guzzler tax partially deductible/refundable so that businesses that need
trucks/vans/SUV's aren't squeezed as hard by it.

Logical, although you'd have to work out some sort of highly detailed
scheme
for hobbyists, like someone who raises horses for kicks and needs one of
those huge diesel pickups with a 5th wheel for the trailer. Same for
people
who haul an RV and need that same kind of truck.

I would make no allowance for vehicles used for "hobbies". Hobbies cost
money. If the tax puts a hobby out of reach financially, then it's time to
find another hobby.



It must be realized that this would negatively impact truck/SUV sales, so
the government must offset the tax with huge tax rebates to those
factories
which attain a certain production level of vehicles employing new
fuel-saving technology.

Only if those car makers redesign their SUVs to reflect the fact that
maybe
10% of owners actually need the vehicles geared for off-road use.
Otherwise,
all they'll do is tweak the engines just enough to squeeze under whatever
new limit is set. No redesign, no tax break.

Not if the limit is set high enough. They don't have to reinvent the wheel
(at least not immediately), they just need to build a better mousetrap.





To put it another way, it's EXTREMELY likely that this country could,
in
the
not-so-distant future, exercise some leverage with oil prices in the
same
way I can exercise leverage with new car prices because there are at
least
4
dealers for any brand of car in Rochester NY.

To put it another way, people in relationships will refuse to admit
they're
wrong about even the most trivial crap until they've been dragged
through
194 hours of couples counseling. Analogy: At some point, people need to
give
up their attitude of "God gave every American the right to own whatever
vehicle we want, to drive it as much as we want, and maintain it as
poorly
as we want, and you're a fascist/commie/whatever if you suggest
otherwise."

Do you think it's worth beginning the oil consumption counseling now,
or
doesn't that give you as big a hard-on as seeing cities in flames? A
real
man would get a HUGE woody from being able to tell a supplier to shove
their
product.

Taxing gas isn't the answer.

I'm not referring to taxing. I'm talking about an advertising scheme as
pervasive as what we now see for tobacco, drugs and DWI. Taxing may cut
demand indirectly, but changing minds is direct. If you don't believe
this,
take a peek at what the carbohydrate scandal has done to the earnings of
the
major bakers in this country.


You're assuming that people who buy the gas-guzzlers have a conscience.
Otherwise, advertising won't work. A large gas guzzler premium *will* have
an influence however.