Taken from Matthew Yglesisas
Rob Goodspeed points out that we have substantial evidence that consumers bear only around half the burden of gasoline taxes over the long run, with the rest of the incidence falling on the oil companies. Here’s one study:
Using the estimated coefficients, we can determine the incidence of federal and state specific taxes. An increase in the federal tax by 1¢ raises the retail price by 0.47¢ and decreases the wholesale price by 0.56¢. Thus, consumers and wholesalers each pay roughly half of the federal specific tax.
In other words, we really should be raising the gas tax. There are a billion reasons this won’t happen, but if we were to raise the gas tax, then rebate half the revenues to citizens on some kind of flat per person basis, and make the other half available to fund transit projects, there’d be no net burden on the population, you’d create an incentive to use alternative forms of transportation where they exist, and you’d have a pool of revenue available to create alternative forms of transportation
Higher gas taxes also have the benefit of decreasing consumption which should be good for the enviroment as well. The gas tax holiday is one of the dumbest ideas ever, once again Hillary Clinton shows her poor judgement with her support of the idea.
Tax holidays…the concept creates a concentrated revenue bonanza for local business and mega-retail outfits on a specific day, and psychologically I’d bet that more is sold because of the holiday that would have been otherwise. For gasoline the idea is childish. What someone in the race needs to do, is put forward something legitimate. How about increasing the gas tax on non-efficient autos, and use that money to subsidize a lower diesel price? How about getting the universities to work on alternatives for the winter months, in making it so that they don’t have to run their engines to stay warm and have electricity?
That is a stimulus package, and a real thing that could be done to keep our distribution system secure. Imagine a higher diesel price next year, and we’re reading more stories about truckers and their people, sounding the alarm about the system’s fragility – ala what the military has been saying about itself for years already.
There is no free lunch. I thought this was a reality based blog, not a denial zone.
The best reason to raise the gas tax is so that people use less of it. Of course, that reduces the food, healthcare, education, and other stuff that people want.
No free lunch.
Allocation of resources…caveat, our money is miss allocated on the way out and poorly accounted for on the way in. Eliminate the Iraq War and kick the IRS/SEC/FBI into another gear. It’s time to follow the money. The small business loan sector is a great place to find a lot of the same “no-look” credit that was discovered in the marketing of sub-prime mortgages.
Honestly, the bankers are going to fuck up when they’ve got more money than they know where to put it…this is all part of God’s scheme, and I know that because it has happened before and it will happen again. Taking a ‘look the other way’ approach to oversight of the American investment banking sector…
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The gas tax as a means of reducing consumption idea strikes me as cruel and unusual punishment. I have the shortest drive to work than I’ve ever had in my life, but I remember plenty of times when it was the other way around. It is a tax on the poor basically.
Gas mileage has to be the measure. Those who splurge on finite resources at times like this are the ones to tax higher. Let our distribution and public transportation systems benefit from their excess.
Al: I am all for eliminating the gas tax (not suspending it temporarily). However, this is because I am a global warming skeptic.
If I were looking for policy that reduces gasoline consumption, I would support an increase in the gas tax.
As far as progressive taxation, if the average person in the world receives about $5,000 per year in spending, are you for taxing everyone who makes more than that? Where do you draw your boundaries?
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