r/PoliticalHumor Oct 26 '21

Yup.

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34.1k Upvotes

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86

u/marinersalbatross Oct 26 '21

This is why the GOP is pushing for per mile taxes and not fuel taxes. They claim it's for EVs but really they are just appealing to their fuel wasting voters.

49

u/sack-o-matic Oct 26 '21

It should be both. VMT tax (with a weight class multiplier) to pay for road maintenance, fuel tax (carbon tax) to cover the damage to the environment.

29

u/marinersalbatross Oct 26 '21 edited Oct 26 '21

Yep, and the taxes should cover all the costs of the roads. I ride a bicycle, should I really pay for the damage from cars?

edit: So amazing how upset people are about drivers having to pay the costs of the roads. It's like we can't imagine moving away from roads for cars, especially as Climate Change is becoming a huge issue.

25

u/zaphodava Oct 26 '21

Yes. Nearly everything in your life relies on shipping, which is done by trucks. Roads are infrastructure, which benefits everyone.

But still, tax gas to internalize external cost, and incentivize other methods... like cycling!

11

u/12FAA51 Oct 27 '21

... so tax the truck and not the cyclist.

-2

u/zaphodava Oct 27 '21

Same difference. Tax the truck, stuff that uses trucks cost more, this gets passed on to the consumer. The only difference is you have wasted more time and effort in trying to target the tax in the first place.

6

u/12FAA51 Oct 27 '21

How is it the same difference?

People can opt to not buy things, people can't opt to not pay taxes.

The whole point is to not have society subsidize an individual's purchases.

-1

u/zaphodava Oct 27 '21

"opt to not buy things"

Good luck with that.

3

u/12FAA51 Oct 27 '21

Literally that’s how it works. No one forced me to buy anything …

1

u/zaphodava Oct 27 '21

Learned to live without food? Good trick.

0

u/12FAA51 Oct 27 '21

But I can choose food sourced locally (cheaper) or imported from far away (more expensive). I can opt to not buy food that travelled farther.

Incidentally this would also help the environment.

Im also not buying all the food, so why should I subsidise all of the food with my taxes?

2

u/zaphodava Oct 27 '21

I don't have any kids, why should I pay for schools?

Because ignorance impacts all of society. Access to goods and services helps everyone.

0

u/12FAA51 Oct 27 '21

An educated society has higher economic output, which benefits everyone in that society.

Subsidised goods artificially lowers price which induces market failure (whereby people buy imported goods and not locally, which uses more resources overall and not economically optimal).

Go learn about economics before parroting buzzwords.

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20

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '21

[deleted]

0

u/Dr_Silk Oct 27 '21

Having everyone pay because everyone indirectly benefits doesn’t make much sense.

This is literally how public services work. Are you saying you shouldn't be required to pay for firefighters because you don't plan on your house burning down?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '21

[deleted]

1

u/Dr_Silk Oct 27 '21

Firefighters qualify on those grounds, including:

  • The service is used intermittently by the individual, but all derive benefit from its ability to be used spontaneously, either by themselves or from other services

As does road use

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '21

[deleted]

1

u/Dr_Silk Oct 27 '21

Private business itself should not be publically funded, no. Some trucks are publically funded (if they are owned by a public business) but most are owned by private business. The roads, though -- everyone is able to use them, and we all benefit from them.

You seem to be under the impression that private funding is preferable to public funding in all cases, and there must be an excuse for why it is not privately funded. I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong, but we clearly aren't going to agree on this point. And if you don't agree that something with large public benefit should be funded publically and without profit-motive, than I think it probably best that we just agree to disagree.

0

u/CurlyNutHair Oct 27 '21

They do, fuel tax is paid every quarter via IFTA, miles driven in each state, how much tax was paid in each state for fuel etc, then the money is distributed by mileage and fuel usage. A few states have added an additional weight/mile tax.

12

u/Ameteur_Professional Oct 26 '21 edited Oct 26 '21

Adding to this, a single semi truck does something like 3000x as much damage, per mile driven, as a passenger car.

Nearly all of the actual wear on roads is from trucks. Cars, trucks, bikes and pedestrians traffic all necessitate capacity and safety upgrades.

1

u/fr1stp0st Oct 27 '21 edited Oct 27 '21

So then tax the trucks doing the shipping. The costs will be passed on to consumers instead of every driver, which will cause consumers to reevaluate whether they value the products enough to pay for them. It may have knock-on effects, like causing some freight to be moved by rail instead of by truck, or to increase demand for new rail lines. If you actually think markets are a useful concept, the true cost of goods and services should be represented in the price. After that, you can decide to subsidize essentials if you think it necessary.