Posted on 06/04/2005 8:55:42 PM PDT by quidnunc
Coming to a state near you...
If I were to be charged for distance instead of a regular gas tax, I'd buy the biggest gas guzzling car in the country. If I'm going to be charged by the mile, I'm going to do it in ultimate comfort and luxury, and listen to the environ weenies bitch about it on my car radio.
I commute about 60 miles a day... a charge like this would put my daily commute at almost $150 a day. Who can afford that? What is this idiot trying to do, send Britain's economy into a nose dive?
Politicians are really good at taking and spending other peoples money.
Ok flame away but I actually think this is a good idea. It is a much smarter way of managing traffic than mass transit which most people don't use anyway. I know people are concerned about privacy here, but I don't think that's a valid criticism. They may be Socialists, but they're not Communists.
How much you wanna bet they'll pay by the mile.....and the gas tax won't be completely scrapped (to be re-raised at a later date)?
I only commute about 28 miles a day to and from work. But last year, as a field service engineer, I drove over 20,000 miles for work... What would be more than $48,600 in taxes I would have had to pay... More importantly, that would have been passed on to companies who wanted or needed to have their computers fixed.
And I wonder if anyone's bothered to check into what this would do to the prices.... well, the prices of EVERYTHING!!! I guess it never occured to the politicians who think this crap up that stuff doesn't just magicly appear at stores... I wonder what will happen when the price of milk goes up to $6.00 a gallon, or bread to $5.00 a loaf?
Mark
It would be no big deal to have different rates for different cars. For instance, someone who hates gas guzzlers who's in charge might decide that if you drive a Toyota, you pay one rate, but if you drive a Hummer, you pay 3 or 4 or 20 times that rate.
Mark
Please. Leave this country and take your stupidity with you. There are dozens of freedom-hating places where you will be happy.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Thre is NO way I could afford this. Plus won't this just caue many to move close to work ie more urbanization and all the problems associated with it or will it lead back to small town business setting up. I don't know but heck I could not afford this I drive 50 miles a day. The USA is way to large and many people drive many miles to work and live out in the rural areas because they are FREE to do so. Maybe on a little island like England this is no big deal. But there would be a revolt in this country.
All of the EU countries have been watching the German trucker tax situation (using satellite devices and charging truckers for every 10-20 miles of use of the German autobahn system). The system has had vast numbers of problems and has quietly injected over a 300 million dollars of tax revenue into the system over the past couple of months. The sad thing is that politicans don't realize that the revenue is coming right out of the pockets of people when they shop. In the case here of the mile tax situation...the employees are going to pass this buck to the boss who is going to charge more for services or products. So the entire economy has to pump out the $2 or $3 billion dollars that will be generated. Lack of economic intelligence is readily demonstrated in this case.
It's not like this is some kind of surprise to you, is it? This sort of thing is absolutely inevitable, until such time as citizens decide to remove (by whichever means you please) these ''public servants'' from office. And by preference remove them to the crypt.
Perhaps the populace will stand up on their hind legs and say ''Sod off, you b*st*rds'' to this sort of policy...but the record to date is NOT encouraging in the UK.
And, I won't wonder at all when the assorted blue states here in the US do the same thing. Oregon's talking about this policy, or something very similar, right now today.
Most people would not be able to afford to drive any more.
Society would have to be totally re-arranged.
This is just the latest shot in the town-vs-countryside culture war.
The liberal townies are detrermined to destroy the country-squire lifestyle.
The real kicker is in the last paragraph before the snip.
Darling is confident that the technology will be in place within the next 10-15 years for a nationwide scheme. A satellite tracking system would monitor black boxes inside every car. “Top-of-the-range cars have got satellite navigation kits fitted almost as standard now,” Darling said.
This is about one thing ladies and gentlemen, and that is control. With one of these "black boxes", not only will they be able to monitor exactly how far you've driven, but they'll also be able to pinpoint with great precision exactly where you've driven, and when.
The UK is already the most highly monitored nation in the (somewhat) free world. This plan will ensure that this will expand exponentially in the future. There are kooks trying to institute this stuff here too. Britain is going to be the testbed for absolute citizen control, then it will be exported across the pond bit by bit.
Claire Wolfe was wrong.
Kind of funny how all these driving taxes I hear about have the side effect of tracking your car at all times. Why not just go the whole route, let's chip people and have a walking tax and bike riding tax.
Or move into the cities (cages) like the socialists always wanted. People are easier to control when they're stuffed into nice, neat packages.
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