Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Tom Friedman in today's NYT on what we should be doing:
- • We would adopt a 50-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax, the Patriot Tax (along with my wife's proposal: free public parking anywhere in America for any hybrid or other car getting more than 35 m.p.g.).
. . .
Had we imposed a Patriot Tax a year ago, gasoline might still cost $2 a gallon today, but 50 cents of that would have gone to paying for American schools rather than Saudi madrassas.
|
Friedman is doing a really bad job of plagarizing from Gregg Easterbrook, who himself did a pretty poor job (yesterday) of plagarizing from Kerry, or really, the same economists that struck Kerry 10 years ago as the appealing flavor of the month.
There is simply no way that had we imposed a 50c gas tax last year we would not see gas prices that are, approximately, 50c higher today. Maybe 47c higher. But really. Toyota can't turn out enough Priuses (no, not Prii) as it is. And who's going to turn in their shiny new Hummer (who, Bilmore, who?)?
If you're going to institute a gasoline tax (which I've advocated before here, yet got the working class objection to), it has to be phased in over a period of years with a recognition that it's a long-term project. The consumption effect is not immediate--short run elasticity of demand is very low--you still need to get to your job in your current car--it's only long run elasticity that would be affected by price (we're all driving hybrids now, or living closer to the city in hovels).
And, BTW, why they hell do we have to spend any gas tax revenue on something, other than cutting other taxes?
(ETA: I'll note, only out of curiousity, that a gallon of milk runs $2.50 to $3.00, and a gallon of spring water is upwards of $1.99 most places. Where's the outrage? Where?)
