Posted on 09/14/2005 10:49:53 AM PDT by cogitator
What this country needs is $4-a-gallon gasoline or, maybe, $5. We don't need it today, but we do need it over the next seven to 10 years via a steadily rising oil tax. Coupled with stricter fuel economy standards, higher pump prices would push reluctant auto companies and American drivers away from today's gas guzzlers. That should be our policy.
...
Hurricane Katrina's message is clear: We are vulnerable to any major cutoff of oil. This cutoff came from a natural disaster, but the larger menace is a political cutoff.
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Government needs to foster a market for fuel efficiency. ... One way or another, Americans should know that the era of cheap gasoline is history. Some drivers will want hybrid versions of their present vehicles; others will downsize. It's not a national tragedy for someone to trade an Expedition for a Taurus.
At times, individual freedom must be compromised to improve collective security.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So do you, or do you not, support the Patriot Act?
I found the report below. For 1999, the figure on page 1 shows (to my uncalibrated eye) that France got a little less than 1/2 of its energy from nuclear. What's impressive is that their use of fossil fuels decreased in the 90s and leveled off.
http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/Ene_cou_250.pdf
Only as it applies to non-citizens -- and especially as it applies to illegal aliens. I put a very high wall between citizens and aliens of any sort.
OK, fair enough. There is a lot of citizenry acquiescence to the monitoring provisions toward U.S. citizens because this "loss of liberty" is supposed to improve "collective security" (attempting to quote Samuelson). I see it as a sticky wicket, because -- clearly -- there have been, and probably still are, U.S. citizens who are aiding and abetting the enemy. Giving all U.S. citizens a free pass could therefore (at least potentially) provide a pathway facilitating attacks on our country, or at minimum make such attacks easier. So I probably diverge from you in thinking that some degree of intrusion is warranted if there is suspicion that a U.S. citizen is undermining our national security.
McVeigh and Nichols come to mind...
That's why we have "probable cause" and warrant requirements.
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OTOH, Samuelson wasn't referring to the Patriot Act; he was talking about forcing up gas prices (via added taxation) -- specifically for all citizens. "For the common good" -- straight out of Marx & Lenin.
I don't need some citified libwacko deciding what's good for me.
I live ten miles from town and own and manage sevral hundred acres of timberland.
Just because Samuelson can step out his front door onto a city bus doesn't mean that I should have to pay through the nose to go to town for groceries. Nor should it mean that I should have to give up the types of vehicle that are best-suited for my purposes.
Let the limo-libs give up their limousines and/or never-see-dirt SUVs. Just leave the rest of us be. We're not part of their commune!
For the left there is nothing that a good stiff tax won't solve.
Robert J. Samuelson is just one of a long line of fools advocating taxing us into prosperity.
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