Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Charlie
I'm a big fan of higher gas taxes, sort of along the lines of "stupid should hurt." Fuel efficient vehicles should be encouraged as a matter of policy by making inefficiency cost more and letting the marketplace figure things out.
More fuel efficient vehicles directly add less pollution to the air and less wear and tear to the roads. Indirectly they cause fewer fuel tanker runs to their local stations (meaning that much less pollution and wear & tear). As an added bonus, smaller vehicles isolate the driver less from the outside world, promoting greater awareness. The perceived feeling of "danger" some people feel in smaller cars is really just awareness, and more of that leads directly to safer operation. Indirectly, when smaller cars do crash, they cause less damage to bystanders, telephone poles and other things near the road.
Indirect costs like increased freight expenses will end up shifting freight prices and maybe changing ordering behavior- maybe Amazon Prime will charge a couple more bucks to overnight things.
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"Stupid should hurt", and "letting the marketplace sort it out" are direct opposites. The marketplace will make stupid hurt if you keep government out of it. Taxing something to make something hurt but not something else leads to the worst stupidity of all. If stupid should hurt they should close Washington all together.