>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anon_couscous_ff <no_reply@>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > About a month ago I heard that total tax on a gallon was $0.67.
Ouch
> > > Lots of money....
> > >
> > >
> > > JohnY
> >
> >
> > Its quite low, huh. If congress and the admin had been far sighted and
> > had some courage 10-20 years ago -- best yet 30 years ago during the
> > first oil crises, and added an annual cumulative 10-20 cent tax on gas
> > (all BTUs actually) and plowed the full tax revenues back into
> > aggressive incentives for more far more efficient cars, different
> > types of engines (natural gas, electric, hybrid) as well as doing far
> > more to jump start solar and wind, etc, demand for gas would have
> > gone way down, total prices would have fallen (at least relative to
> > their actual trend), total gas bills would have decreased (50% use x
> > reduced oil price + tax), arab sponsored terrorism would have been
> > funded far less, the air would be cleaner, greenhouse gas buildup
> > would be far less, GNP would be growing faster, and the reveneus we
> > see now going to oil companies oil lease holders would be far less,
> > defense spending would have been far less (to keep oil lanes open,
> > oil sponsored terrorists at bay, and the US rep around the world would
> > have been far more friendly -- for not beefing up oil patrons,
> > invading oil countries,etc.
> >
> Gov't is not that farsighted, it tends toward selfish-interest ...
> capitalism might do it, if the price keeps climbing.
>
> JohnY
> ps. pundits won't do it either...
>
Markets will do it eventually. As gas gets to $4-5+. But we will have
missed out on 30 years of dramatic benefits -- and 30 years, plus
another so many, where the negative aspects of non-policy manifest.
Some will argue that the market is always superior to an incentives
policy. Sometimes it is. If the market is able to collect for all a
"products" costs and benefits, then themarket should do so. When the
market does not naurally do so, an intelligent incentives policy is
superior.
Pollution is a classic example where the market by itself is highly
inefficint in collecting full product costs. With oil, it literally
dumps these extra product costs on society. Plus the "oil" gets a free
ride from the military without paying the "protection" and defense
costs necessary for the US level of oil consumption.
So its a matter of structuring intelligent and efficient ways for the
market to pay for the uncollected costs oil imposes. And the double
jackpot is that with these now collected revenues -- incentives can
be structured to jumpstart the transformation of the market to -- in
this case -- far lower oil and energy use, and resulting pollution,
per unit of GNP.
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