Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Regressive means treating people disproportionately such that the wealthy stand to profit more or lose less than the unwealthy. An example of this is tax subsidies for wealthy people to purchase new EVs.
An example of a flat tax is 17 cents per gallon of gasoline. It's agnostic to the wealth of who is purchasing the product because the proportion of tax remains the same if you purchase a gallon, or 50,000.
|
No, that is not the definition of a regressive tax. From Investopedia:
Quote:
What Is a Regressive Tax?
A regressive tax is a tax applied uniformly, taking a larger percentage of income from low-income earners than from high-income earners. It is in opposition to a progressive tax, which takes a larger percentage from high-income earners.
|
Say two people both spend $100 a month on gas.
Bob makes $40K a year so $1200 is 3% of his income
John makes $120K a year so $1200 is 1% of his income.
If the Feds raise the gas tax and double their gas bill an extra $100 a month they are taking another 3% of Bob's income but only 1% of John's income. The gas tax increase hit Bob 3 times harder than John.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Most of the poor in the US do have access to public transportation because most of the poor live in cities and surrounding suburbs.
|
I've lived in the burbs in 5 states. Hillsboro is the first that has public transportation. The rural and suburban poor outnumber the urban poor almost 2 to 1.
Governments around the world want people to buy EVs to reduce CO2 and local urban pollution. They want them to buy EVs now because cars are durable goods so cars built today will still be on the roads decades from now. The problem is that today an EV costs more than a gas car. A logical person looking at dollars and cents will buy a gas car today. So if the government wants to change that calculation they have to make gas cars more expensive or EVs cheaper.
The easiest and most direct way to do that is when the car is purchased. Instead of giving an EV a $7500 credit they could add a surcharge to new car sales based on CO2 emissions.
The other option is doing what the EU did. Force automakers to make more efficient cars by make the fines so large that companies can't just pay the fines. See VW's fleet emission for the proof that it works.