"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...

"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.

Good! You may not be the 100% useless sack of **** we thought you were. :-)



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.

No. No wiggle room. I was about to say "think back 35 years", but you can't
do that, so I'll help. Used to be you only saw SUVs owned by people who
actually needed them:

1) People who used them for a sport which took them off-road constantly,
like hunters or surf fishermen.
2) People who lived where there was snow. Not pussy snow like along the
entire coast from Massachusetts down to Washington DC, but SNOW.
3) People who towed often and needed a truck's gear ratio, but not a huge
pickup like a bricklayer wants when hauling 2 tons of cement.

Now, it's different. My previous number was a guess, but I'll bet it wasn't
far off: 90% of the people who buy an SUV have absolutely no MECHANICAL NEED
for it. Therefore, the manufacturers should be TOLD that they will sell 90%
of those things with a gear ratio set up like a passenger car, and that they
will train their sales staff to qualify customers correctly. The soccer mom
who wants an SUV because the bumper's higher up and she thinks that makes it
a safer car - she can have one, but she doesn't get the truck gear ratio
that a hunter gets. Even if 20% of the customers lie, it's better than what
we have now: Millions of vehicles getting 17 mpg, driven by fools who think
they're cool.


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.

Doesn't matter. The government can afford television spots. If it works for
half the viewers, it's better than what we have now: NOTHING. No effort
whatsoever.