Posted on 10/27/2013 5:45:21 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON As America's road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.
The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
They can tax us all they want; but black boxes in cars? Ain't gonna happen in my day. Besides, some tech guy will come up with a way to circumvent such tracking devices, even if the manufacturers claim them tamper proof.
The real problem that comes out of this will be the “fairness” issue. Some mile are not going to be the same as others - for instance doing 30 K miles in downtown Chicago wouldn’t be doing the same cost of wear as doing 30 K miles out in West Texas. Location tracking will inevitably come out of this idea and with location tracking, it will be possible to track any individual’s movements with all the behavioral analysis that will follow.
BEATLES TAX MAN
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet
Taxman!
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
Don’t ask me what I want it for (Aahh Mr. Obama)
If you don’t want to pay some more (Aahh Ms. Jarrett)
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
And you’re working for no one but me
Taxman!
Raising the federal gas tax, as the article and many comments suggest, accomplishes the same objective without intruding on our lives.
The black box will eventually be mandated, however. All our comings and goings will be monitored in real time by GPS. It is a foregone conclusion.
Edward Snowden has proven that if any government possesses surveillance technology, then they will use it on their own people.
You are correct - the fuel tax does exactly what the black box would do in terms of imposing extra taxes on those who drive the most. But the fuel tax does not give the government any information about YOU, so it is “outdated.”
I think that one objective of this will be to penalize rural and suburban drivers because of WHERE they drive, not just how many miles they drive. In other words, in-city driving - regardless of miles driven - will be taxed at a lower rate than suburb-to-city driving. Something along those lines MUST be in the works, because simply raising the fuel tax would achieve the goal of taxing higher consumption.
Americans need to rebel against further taxation. We are being taxed to death.
Municipal, county, state, federal entities are dipping into our pockets like never before. All said and done, around 50% of our income goes to some taxing bureaucracy.
The list of taxes/fees/levies are nothing short of breath taking. Take a look at the list in the link.
As the average pay for middle America stagnates, these taxes continue to grow.
It is time for those of us in the rural areas (what the MSM refers to as fly-over country) to stop sending food to the cities. It obviously wastes too much energy and causes too much wear and tear on the roads.
What compelling State interest requires the State to know anything at all about the mileage you freely choose to put on your car?
What right does the State have to say you cannot "tamper" with anything that is your own property?
Knowledge is power. The less the bureaucrat-tyrants know, the better. A lack of a freedom to move...is a lack of freedom, period.
Theres a stretch of highway (I-435) that runs through Johnson County Kansas that is constantly being torn up and rebuilt but it is constantly in need of repair. It does have very heavy truck traffic. In some places the road is so bad it is a threat to safety. Many accidents in what we call the Olathe triangle.
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This likely is due to the American standards for road building. In Germany, the autobahn specifications for the roadbeds is 70-centimeters bottom to top (with high quality material and construction techniques). American interstates and other major roads are less than half that in thickness and likely built with lower quality material and lax construction techniques.
Sometimes you get what you pay for. And sometimes it’s more expensive in the long run to go “cheap” in the short run.
Actually that is what your smart phone is for.
No, this data will never be abused...
</BARFSARC>
It is a good question, why we can’t just ENFORCE the odometer tampering laws that we have now????
Trains will soon be needed to ‘save money.’
RFID Microchipping in 2017
I would actually be in favor of this, because I have two cars that don’t get particularly good mileage, and, for the purposes of the ROAD TAX (which has been STOLEN FROM for other purposes, allowing the fund to be depleted and roads to deteriorate), cars with great gas mileage are getting away with not paying their share of the wear and tear on the road (they almost all weigh more than mine, BTW).
HOWEVER, even if a totally foolproof, secure, private, and hack-free way was designed to collect this information, you can JUST BET that this tax would come as a NEW TAX and not a replacement for the tax that exists now.
Also, the rat bast#$23 liberals are just drooling over the possibilities of taxing you more to go into congested areas at certain times (=generally wealthy areas, by the way), which will certainly involve recording WHERE you were and WHEN.
Kansans (well those Kansans that actually tag their vehicles in Kansas) already pay out the ass every year on personal property tax on vehicles. They had better not add this crap to the cost of owning a car too.
The cash spilled out of the coffers and into nice homes, luxury cars, investment real estate, vacations, election campaigns, jewelry and other assorted bling, but there's nothing to see there. Let's just find another well to tap...
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