Central America
 

The water company doesn't employ anyone?:confused: Oh shit - we have a robot gap with France!!!

Central America
 

Nothing so dire- most of these French "companies" are just sham fronts to funnel Iraq oil for food money to the Chiacs or Annans.

Central America
 

Maybe it's just that annoying Jerry Lewis guy or whatever his name is, playing a robot, and not *real* robots.

Have you read them? Its not that impressive. Caro paints Johnson to be like Satan. It is way over the top. It reads more like fiction than a scholarly work. So it makes it a really fun read (although factually dubious). I read the first volume when it came out. I then had to wait for the second and then the third. He takes time out between volumes, writes other books, goes on vacation and other completely unacceptible stuff. It is like being in the middle of a Ludlum thriller and then having to wait two years for the ending. I wouldn't start them until the fourth one comes out.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Really, that's why there's a CA bill being proposed to tax based on miles driven.

A Uniter, Not A Divider
 

When I think of all the American "companies" that are just sham fronts to funnel federal tax money into the pockets of heavyweight Republican campaign contributors, I wonder: why must we always focus on what divides us from the French when our cultures are so similar? Why, Hank, why?

Damn HYbrids!
 

Think of tolls as the libertarian's gas tax. With tolls, you can impose a rationally-based, per-mile user fee, without the coercive "buy an efficient car" impact of the gas tax.

Damn HYbrids!
 

No, it's a coercive "drive less" impact of the mileage tax.

Really, why is the activity being taxed? Because of wear and tear on the roads and pollution, right? So the tax should be a fancy combo of fuel burned, what type of emission system the vehicle has, the weight of the vehicle (including whatever is in it, on average), and the miles driven. If noise pollution is a factor, the amount of external noise the car produces should be factored in.

Central America
 

So let me get this straight - if my local water company was owned by a french company, and the local community started receiving brown water after a price increase - and we decide to lobby to get the company out - we are not really upset about the water or the price- deep down what we are really upset about is that the French are exploiting our local workers. In other words, we would be OK with brown expensive water as long as it was provided by an American company.

Damn HYbrids!
 

I will go along with that as long as we tax those stupid Harleys 10 dollars a mile for all the noize they make.

Damn HYbrids!
 

I heard it on the radio a couple weeks ago. Some state legislator is proposing to fix the problem by forcing all hybrids to be equipped with GPS devices that will track the miles driveen by the hybrid (Hello, Big Brother) and automatically assessing a use tax based on the mileage at the pump.

Damn HYbrids!
 

You don't see any transaction cost issues with my proposed tax?

Damn HYbrids!
 

Why are just the Hybrids getting the GPS device? Is it so the Hybrids pay just as much tax even though they are using less gas and putting out less pollution. If that is the case it is time to recall that legislator.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Yes - I see a few problems - but I just want to get rid of the loud Harleys. I love the idea, in theory, of a noise tax.

Damn HYbrids!
 

That's their property and they can use it however they like, dammit.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Since we all should be able to agree that there are externalities associated with the consumption of gas (defense spending, etc.), surely even most libertarians should be able to agree that it makes sense to discourage gas consumption.

I tend to do more driving on city streets than interstates, so a switch from the gas tax to tolls would presumably benefit me. But I find stopping at tolls so irritating that I would rather pay at the pump.

Damn HYbrids!
 

2.

Plus the asswipes who pull up next to you with the bass pounding loud enough to sterilize frogs at 100 yards. The only comfort there is their hearing is going, going, gone.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Is it OK if I exercise my property rights by buying a Humvee and running over them all on the highway. I would even be willing to pay a usage tax for every Harley I run over, for the extra burden on the sanitation department for the cleanup.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Look at gas milages that were puffed during Carter after the "gas crisis." The milages were 30-40 MPG. Now with the advanced technology of hybrids we get? That's right. The advanced tech let's us have bigger cars is all.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Amen to that. You know I heard all the amphibians were disappearing. Now I know why. Those poor frogs. Having you sex life ruined by Tupac.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Amazing what happens when you don't try.

Damn HYbrids!
 

The market in this country (and the rest of the world for that matter) is severly distorted by all the pollution externalities. You have to pay to have your trash disposed of but you can dump all this stuff in the air and not have to pay for it. Its crazy. There should be some cost associated with dumping all this stuff into the public domain. If people don't want to pay for it they can just put big ballons on the end of their exhaust pipes, and take that crap back to their house - and keep it indoors.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Um, isn't this the gas tax? Tax on the pollution?

Damn HYbrids!
 

When I was at the PTO, a guy invented this propulsion system where a motor turned this vane and the vane whipped ball bearings at a belt. The belt was fixed to a vehicle frame, and so the vehicle would go! The vane was supposed to catch the ball after it hit the belt and reuse it. It would have been pollutionless cars and fast. He couldn't work out the "catch part." (it would violate thermo laws if he did).

But anyway he said" 20 years from now you'll all be driving these." See if that had proven true there'd be ball bearings- big-assed ones- flowing out the back of cars and you'd need to go fill up with them at "BB stations,"

Roads would be full of these used ones and it would be a real mess, and slippery and just really unpleasant to move through. Sort of like the PB when SS is posting lots.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Sort of but not really. It does not take into account how efficiently the gas is used. Different engines put out a different amount of exhaust per gallon. In addition, a lot of other products produce pollution and have no tax on them.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Yes but at least I wouldn't have to breath them.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Following on all of their success with the federal budget, I understand that Congressional Republicans are planning to amend the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Damn HYbrids!
 

I would like to heavily tax rap groups, as they annoy me.

And butterless popcorn. We should tax the hell out of that.

If these effin' people want to engage in shit that doesn't please me, make 'em pay, I say! I have rights, too!

Damn HYbrids!
 

You mean the "If we all pray hard enough this should work..." rule. Yet I've read that one.

Damn HYbrids!
 

They took that lesson from Kerry, who tried to overturn the First Law with his "tax the rich" philosophy.

Damn HYbrids!
 

NO FUCKING WAY. You gotta be shitting me on this.

Yes, but the gas tax is not a bad estimator and is a hell of a lot cheaper to administer than having individual pollution-measuring doohickies on everyone's exhaust pipes, and making sure that people actually keep those on there. Having things super-exact is administratively super-expensive.

Transaction costs, bucko. You have to address transaction costs in your bright ideas. This isn't econ class where we get to start out saying "assuming no transaction costs."

Damn HYbrids!
 

you were the one saying we should tax noise pollution right?

Damn HYbrids!
 

No, I wasn't. I believe that was your friend Spankme.

Damn HYbrids!
 

God damn it, not another fucking tax discussion . . . .

Damn HYbrids!
 

While I realize it would be financially advantageous to you personally, I don't advocate a tax on fucking to replace the current income tax system.

Damn HYbrids!
 

And with that, all transactional lawyers breathe a sigh of relief.

Damn HYbrids!
 

I'm a walking fucking transaction cost. But not a walking, fucking transaction cost, so don't bother calling me (again!) when you're drunk at 4:00 a.m., SS.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Studies have shown clearly that the CAFE standards, which raise average gas mileage, have had almost no effect on gasoline consumption. People drive by the total cost of driving--that is, because they need to spend less on fuel, they drive more. So hybrid drivers, predictably, will simply drive more than they otherwise would.

Damn HYbrids!
 

guess it's been covered, but there are pollution costs and road depreciation costs associated with driving--it's approrpiate to charge for both, if the transaction costs don't make doing so prohibitive.

Damn HYbrids!
 

Why not just enforce the noise laws?

Seriously, why aren't they enforced? Cops don't have the nads to mess with the Angels?