|
How are these fees collected? I imagine it is like any other toll is collected, by waiting in a line at a toll collection booth while you look for the change required to simply move from one side of a line to another. This is ludicrously inefficient, and I find it odd that people on an efficiency website would laud this absurdity. How many MPGs does a parked car get? Is it efficient to force every car to a stop, only to accelerate again? How much of the fee goes to good use, and how much is consumed in the collection and administration of the program? Taking tiny portions of everyones time on a continual basis collectively wastes hundreds of thousands of hours that could be used for other purposes. This can't possibly end up being a net benefit to humanity.
That said, providing incentives or disincentives to modify behavior can achieve goals when properly crafted. A fee should be collected as infrequently as possible, or as seamlessly. The best way I can think to penalize gas guzzling is to tax purchased fuel at the pump. Well, I imagine this was among the first artificial influences on the consumption of fuel to be implemented.
Is it crazy to attempt to reduce pollution or resource consumption? Absolutely not, but efficiency must be kept in mind when thinking about how to encourage efficiency.
|