NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/sci/environm/13804

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 2.4 KB | 49 lines

Newsgroups: sci.environment
Path: sparky!uunet!nwnexus!beauty!josh
From: [e-mail] (Joshua_Putnam)
Subject: Re: Save the Planet and the Economy at the Same time!
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Happy Man Corp., Vashon Island, WA 98070-7399
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 20:18:10 GMT
Lines: 37

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Vandeman) writes:

>-:      The answer is simple. We already know that the automobile and
>-: its relatives and accoutrements (e.g. roads, CFC-containing air
>-: conditioners, used tires, etc.) constitute the world's greatest
>-: threat to our environment and quality of life. We also know that
>-: the rich own and operate motor vehicles more than the poor.
>-
>-    In the discussion of the gas tax, it was noted that it's
>-not an equitable tax because the poor- and middle-class are more
>-constrained to use their cars than the upper class.

>Not if you read the census reports. The poor have fewer cars
>available, & use them less. Isn't that obvious?

Not only is it un-obvious, it's untrue.  There are many more poor
and middle class people than there are rich people, so despite a
lower per capita car ownership among the poor, the number of cars
owned and driven by poor people is larger than the number of cars
owned and driven by rich people.  A tax on cars will take more
money from the poor, as a class, than from the rich, as a class,
even if the per capita cost is smaller for poor people.

Also, note that poor people are more likely to own the sort of
old, inefficient cars likely to be targeted by environmentally-
motivated taxes, e.g. carbon tax, pollution tax, tire taxes, etc.

A similar fallacy is the idea of taxing the rich to balance the
budget.  Even if you confiscated the entire income of every
person making over $1 million a year, the Federal budget would
not be balanced -- there just aren't enough rich people to make
up for the vast majority of middle-class and poor people.
--
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