Comments on Gregable.: One more try: Gas Tax Hikes can actually help the ...

Greg P, IANAE (I am not an economist) but I unders...

2008-06-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Greg P, IANAE (I am not an economist) but I understand that a common philosophical debate is the one you raise. Namely, given some amount of cash and a poor person you want to help, what is the best way to use that cash to improve their quality of life? The debatable choices are: 1) give them the cash and let them choose or 2) spend the cash in some way on their behalf and give them a tangible benefit instead.

I don't know the right answer to that question, but I do know that it is an interesting one that you raise.

Even still, I disagree with your conclusion that these people will "have exhausted their cash they will be stuck with exorbitant gas prices they'll never be able to afford." This is only somewhat true. Nobody is "stuck" with paying for gas at all as the economy offers alternatives (thats the whole point) in the form of driving less, other forms of travel, carpooling, driving slower, filling up tires, lighter cars, shorter commutes (moving), ethanol, public transit, electric vehicles, removing heavy crap from one's car, etc.

Bicyclists could expect a bonanza, as they do not ...

2008-06-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

Bicyclists could expect a bonanza, as they do not use gasoline, period. There are health benefits to riding bikes as well. With a biking range now spanning six counties, I will never need a car.
I think the reason much of the U.S. is not bike-friendly is because of the power that the oil industry has. In 1910, there was a bike path under construction in Los Angeles. The construction workers got only the first two miles built before the highway people ordered it torn down and decided to build a freeway, now Hwy 110. A highway act in the 1950's, which is responsible for the interstate highways, essentially reduced bikes to toys. It took the oil crisis of 1974 to get people on bikes temporarily. Once the crisis was over, people returned to their cars, and pretty much remained there despite gas prices approaching $5/gallon.

I still think that there's a (perhaps minor) probl...

2008-06-25T02:37:00.000-07:00

I still think that there's a (perhaps minor) problem with this approach.

Yes it's true that poor families will make use of the extra cash both for gas and their other expenses -- but it's possible that they'll make too much use of that cash in terms of their other expenses as soon as they get it.

These are people that are often starving, unemployed, behind on their rent, in credit card debt, etc. so in any case, at least some of them will use this bonus money to take care of expenses they neglected before or to repay debts.

Then, whenever they are in an emergency situation or even just at the end of the month and have exhausted their cash they will be stuck with exorbitant gas prices they'll never be able to afford.

In short, I don't think that just handing out cash to the poorest people is necessarily the best way to relieve poverty or even help them to buy gas.

> I don't believe our government truly want...

2008-06-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

> I don't believe our government truly wants us to consume less oil/gas, and I believe they're going to drag this out as long as they possibly can.

Like any large organization, the US government is not one person and one voice. There are those on both sides of this issue, but you are right, the current administration doesn't seem that interested.

> Also, there would need to be some sort of system in place for tracking the amount of gas I buy. That system surely would cost lots of $ to implement and maintain.

There wouldn't. My last paragraph or so mentions that you you can have the exact same affect as a rebate system by distributing an income-tax rebate coupled with a gas-tax hike, which is something that would cost very little to implement as we do this kind of thing all the time.

I think the idea of handing out rebates to people ...

2008-06-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

I think the idea of handing out rebates to people who stay below a certain threshold is a great idea; however, I don't believe our government truly wants us to consume less oil/gas, and I believe they're going to drag this out as long as they possibly can.

Also, there would need to be some sort of system in place for tracking the amount of gas I buy. That system surely would cost lots of $ to implement and maintain.

What about companies that depend on using lots of gas, like truckers, taxi drivers, etc?