Posted on 11/04/2009 8:25:25 PM PST by Egg
DETROIT (Reuters) - There's a simple way to get Americans to drive fuel-efficient cars, according to auto executives, but they are not going to like it -- sharply hike the gas tax.
[snip]
Gradually raising gas taxes to the point where fuel costs $4 to $5 at the pump will do more to stimulate demand in next-generation vehicles like General Motors Co's forthcoming Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid than any other policy initiatives...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Keep raising taxes and Americans won't have any money to buy your overpriced cars.
Raising taxes on Gas would drive people to be more efficient and consume less. But it would also kill the economy and reduce our lifestyles.
I say build nuclear plants, so that there is an abundance of energy. Provide that energy to hydrogen producers at variable cost, letting other energy consumers pay for the plant overhead, which they would be paying for anyway if nobody was producing hydrogen.
Get the cost of hydrogen fueled vehicles down to the equivalent of $1 per gallon of gas. Then you have a real incentive for people to convert to hydrogen and tell OPEC and the middle east where to put their oil.
Yeah, make Americans sink all their money into gas tanks and heat, leaving them starving and forced into bankruptcy, and then they will buy a smaller eco-car. Are these people born this stupid? Or did they have to work at it?
1) $4 or $5 per gallon fuel will conserve fuel and lead people to buy less fuel per year and more fuel efficient vehicles. That's been proven three or four times in the last four decades.
2) Add a $1 per gallon tax just to better fund the US military -- with even just the basics: more and better body armor, more ammo, new rifles, more close air support platforms, more C-17 airlift planes (so that our troops don't get hung out on the end of a vulnerable logistical thread), and better veterans' health care, etc. etc.
3) Add another $1 per gallon tax, the revenues to be turned over to States to fix roads and bridges (and no swiping that fuel tax for airports and mass transit rail, etc.)
No tell OPEC to get lost and rill our own oil!
No, absolutely not.
I second that ‘No, absolutely not.’
If domestic production is exempt from the defense tax, then that domestic production from wells, oil shale, coal, etc. will be more competitive.
Then the States add a $1 per gallon tax and keep it for themselves for roads and bridges.
Cut State pensions and payrolls before adding amy tax.
Sorry, I confused the well-known ‘amy’ tax with ‘any’ tax.
You have absolutely no clue whatsoever. Regarding statement number two, the US could have a defense budget of 1/10 what it is now and still be the most powerful military on the planet. There is so much waste and disapearing funds that it’s not even funny.
Good Idea, But you didn’t take it far enough.
Mandate that all federal Jobs have Pay parity with the private sector.
That will free up lots of Cash.
But then, who in Congress will vote for it?
The problem with $4 to $5 gas is that incumbents are in jeopardy of losing their office if this happens.
Just ask Republican incumbents in 2006, and to a lesser degree, John McCain in 2008.
When Gas Prices are high, people are pissed. It’s that simple. They blame it on anything and everything in sight too. Many people I work with were certain that the War was the reason for high gas prices and that’s the way BOOSH ‘The Oil Man’ wanted it...
It’s also a surefire way to kill their global warming malarkey. People don’t give a Rodent’s posterior about that stuff when they’re hurting, that’s why that agenda is failing now. They only care about it when there is nothing else to worry about.
“DETROIT (Reuters) - There’s a simple way to get Americans to drive fuel-efficient cars, according to auto executives, but they are not going to like it — sharply hike the gas tax.”
Buy an American car ? Never again !
Some days I feel like wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.
Time to buy another motorcycle , made in JAPAN
Queer the system and artificially raise prices as high as you (they) like - I will continue to drive. Of course at a certain point it will become cheaper to just *appropriate* it...
*Yeah, make Americans sink all their money into gas tanks and heat, leaving them starving and forced into bankruptcy, and then they will buy a smaller eco-car. Are these people born this stupid? Or did they have to work at it?*
What would make more sense is to just have GM and/or Chrysler build everyone a 40 mpg car and delivery it to each American family—hell, we’ve ALREADY PAID FOR IT.
I have a much better idea to get Americans to drive fuel efficient cars - put an "auto executive" out front pulling it!!!
(I'd pay real money just to SEE that, much less experience it!!)
I think Chrysler and Ford were on the right track back in the early eighties with small displacement four cylinder turbocharged gas engines. That is the true substitute for "cubes".
A turbocharger gives you high performance out of a small displacement engine while you have your foot in it (getting out into traffic) and then it reverts to being a small efficient engine after you attain cruising speed.
Small diesel turbos are also pretty good...same logic.
The only other thing to make them better would be a heavy flywheel for more torque, instead of the quick revving sporty car mentality.
My question is how can anyone in the position of an auto executives put forward such a bizarre idea of artificially raising gas prices and be so ignorant of the economic realities?
When exec Mike Jackson says, “If we migrate slowly over years to $4 or $5 a gallon, everybody will adjust, everybody will manage. It's not a problem,” he is showing us the short sighted thinking that took the US auto industry down the rat hole. Now he wants to use that same thinking to send the US economy down the rat hole.
Why stop there? Let's add another $1 a gallon tax on top of all your taxes to build a "fitting memorial" to Teddy Chappaquiddick.
We can also add ANOTHER $1 a gallon tax so that "underprivileged" children in Uganda can have a shopping spree at Walmart!!
And, if we toss in a couple of more dollars per gallon on top of that, Obama will be able to be tossed out of the WH in '12 and never have to worry about collecting unemployment!!
As long as we're just tossing stuff in, here, let's just raise the price of gas to $25,000 a gallon (along with all of the gratuitous taxes) and that way, when Jed Clampett discovers oil on his property while hunting for food, he can not only afford to move to Beverly Hills, he'll be able to buy California!!!
1) $4 or $5 per gallon fuel will conserve fuel and lead people to buy less fuel per year and more fuel efficient vehicles. That's been proven three or four times in the last four decades.
2) Add a $1 per gallon tax just to better fund the US military -- with even just the basics: more and better body armor, more ammo, new rifles, more close air support platforms, more C-17 airlift planes (so that our troops don't get hung out on the end of a vulnerable logistical thread), and better veterans' health care, etc. etc.
3) Add another $1 per gallon tax, the revenues to be turned over to States to fix roads and bridges (and no swiping that fuel tax for airports and mass transit rail, etc.)
Oh great and why not another $1.00/gal to fund ACORN; another $1.00/gal to give everyone another $4,500 for Cash for Clunkers and another $1-2.00/gal just on GP.
Sheesh!
Apparently you don't need your vehicle (like some of us do) to earn a living
Don't you realize what a ripple affect this would have on just about everything everyone buys or service they use?
Just because Big Auto has been mandated by DEAR LEADER and his EnviroNut minions to build junk POS vehicles nobody wants, they now advocate Fascist European Socialist measures to force us to have to make changes in our lifestyle few want or will accept gracefully or "willingly."
It isn’t CAFE keeping diesels out, but the EPA.
This one I have to go with the EPA on, diesel particulates are nasty and carcinogenic.
I oppose such taxes, but agree they make more sense than the current regulatory regime (CAFE).
Diesels have come a long way in terms of emissions, including particulates. In most respects, their emissions are better than sparkers.
What do you think the original point of the gas taxes was.
(and no swiping that fuel tax for airports and mass transit rail, etc.)
Yeah. well that was already supposed to have been in the original law, not to go into general funds. But there's that nasty, 'stroke of the pen, law of the land" thing again. Nukes, nukes, and drill, baby, drill.
User fees -- those who use roads and those who benefit from national defense and use of military force against islamastan.
Meanwhile...
Our domestic oil industry could use an extra $100 per barrel incentive to drill more.
Obamanuism has turned them into K Street whores working to destroy Capitalism with the syphilis of Marxism.
So make a defense surcharge of $42 per barrel tariff on oil imported from anywhere but Canada (Nigeria is a major supplier and it is sinking into Islamic civil war).
So the makers of the general motors shitbox hybrid thinks raising our taxes will win us over?Never by a gm anything.
I sure as hell hope you are not a representative or senator because your opinions are right in line with the marxist whitehouse.
What an idiot. With trucking costs going up because of high gas prices, we will all be paying for it plus our own gas......doesn’t anyone know how to think?....yikes what a stupid stunt..
“Then the States add a $1 per gallon tax and keep it for themselves for roads and bridges.”
I’m with you on that, but man do I get the name-calling when I bring it up here. It seems like people here would rather pay 25 cents a mile to drive on foreign-run toll roads with transponders in their cars, rather than see the gas tax go up by one penny.
Go figure.
I think they are just noticed more than other taxes. But, what frustrates me is that while conservatives have grasped the destructive nature of taxation, many still seem to fail to grasp the destructive nature of regulation.
We must not only cut taxes, but repeal regulation, if we want America to prosper. The current level of regulation is excessive, unnecessary and unacceptable.
I hope you’re not expecting an argument from me on that point!
People who use roads and bridges should pay for that use.
People who rely on our military to keep fuel coming for them to use should pay for that defense.
Is a fee to use the county swimming pool or golf course or ski slope a “tax” or a “user fee”.
Why should those who don’t use a government provided service as much as others do (or at all) pay extra taxes to subsidize those who do use that service?
The alternative methods for a “user fee” for roads and bridges are
1) tolls (but toll booths are not feasible for every side street and road).
2) methods to measure miles driven such as transponders — yikes!
3) a tax on the fuel used to drive on roads is the best user fee so far.
But gotta figure another way to get users of electrics and bicycles to pay their share.
For centuries nations have gone to war over resources. Eventually, if the USA does not become sufficiently energy independent, we will go to war over energy supplies. And just being able to buy foreign supplies is not a solution since sending so much money overseas comes back to bite us.
If an extra $1 or $2 in taxes goes to improving our infrastructure and to developing alternative fuel or energy sources (nuclear, fusion, whatever) and to defending America — it is relatively small tax to pay compared to the alternative of having deteriorating roads and bridges and being in hock to foreign enemies and likely having to go to war over energy supplies.
Users must pay for what they use — and that includes users of defense and public infrastructure — roads, bridges (and government owned swimming pools, ski slopes, and golf courses — though all those should be privatized).
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