NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/sci/environm/13836

Text File | 1992-12-23 | 3.1 KB | 63 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]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 20:06:20 GMT
Lines: 51

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.
>
>Nonsense. Read the Census. You obviously haven't. A greater
>proportion of rich drive than poor. It's obvious.

Correct.  As I noted above, the per-capita driving rate is higher
among the rich than among the poor.  This is undisputed.

It also fails to address the question, since it ignores the
numbers of rich and poor people in this country.  If you take the
trouble to read the Census yourself, you'll see that most people
are not, by any reasonable definition, rich.  If you want to take
more money from the rich, as a class, than from the poor, as a
class, you'll have to tax something other than driving, or else
demonstrate that:

(no. of rich people)*(driving rate)>(no. of poor people)*(driving rate)

Meanwhile, it would help your credibility to avoid unfounded
personal accusations in civilized debates.  It's far from
"obvious" that I have not read the Census, since in fact I have
read it and used its information in rebutting your arguments.
Perhaps you need to read more of the Census than you have,
specifically the numbers of people in each classification, so
that per-capita rates will be in appropriate contexts.
--
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