[ale] [OT] cartoon on BP spill blame

[Tom Freeman]

Well, yes and no with respect to whether or not the government should 
set artificial milage limits on vehicle manufacturers. I'd prefer to 
see a "carbon tax" at the point of entry for any and all products based 
upon either natural gas, petrolium, or coal: proceeds to said tax to go 
to retiring public debt. Well, purchasing some alternative renuable 
technology would tempt me mightaly(sp?) also. Said carbon tax to rise 
by 0.5% or so every month that the base price of fossel carbon 
sources fails to rise or actually falls on the international market. 
Problem I see with such a move is getting it past legislators (and 
their parasitic lobbyests) without loopholes large enough to drive an 
entire economy through.

Failing that, artifical milage goals are slightly better than nothing. 
although the point can be argued that the distortion on car design is a 
bad thing.

YMWV of course.

On 06/18/2010 12:58:01 PM, Michael Potter wrote:
> I had a BMW Z3 in 1997.  My friend had a Geo Metro.
> 
> My cost per mile for tires was higher than his cost per mile in gas.
> His cost for tires was just a little bit less than the cost of tax on
> my tires.
> 
> I am not exaggerating.
> 
> My opinion is that the government should not set artificial milage
> requirements for the automakers.
> The government should just tax gas such that people will make better
> choices for which cars they buy and which cars they drive.
> Automakers will respond to people's preferences by building cars that
> get better gas milage.
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Tom Freeman
> <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
> > Well, the majority of the race seems to lack the desire/ability/
> > education (pick one or more blame points, or add one) to make much
> of
> > any choice except on the basis of upfront cost.
> >
> > How often have you had the conversation with somebody about to, or
> > justifying the purchase of a SUV where the _only_ cost that they
> > consider is the cost of the fuel to drive it somewhere? Funny thing
> is,
> > fuel cost is a fraction of the total cost of driving, yet the cost
> of
> > fuel drives the whole dynamic because it is visible.
> >
> > My Mazda 6 is getting about 30 mpg overall at the moment. With fuel
> > running about $2.70/gal, that works out to about $0.09/mile. 
> Capital
> > cost happens to run about, wait for it, $0.09/mile (I was able to
> pay
> > cash - it will be higher if you have to finance). I haven't figured
> the
> > maintanace on this car, but the last one worked out to perhaps
> $0.06/
> > mile over 270,000 miles. Add in insurance at something near or
> better
> > than $0.05/mile (in my case - YMWV), and you might see the cost of
> > driving is at least three, probably four times the cost of fuel -
> > assuming that all the costs are accounted for. Plus the cost of
> > maintaining the roadway is almost impossible to account for here, 
> as
> > there are multiple sources of funding (including but not limited to
> the
> > road use tax on fuel.)
> >
> > What I'm trying to suggest is that "price saver" mentality isn't 
> the
> > only force in play here. There is also the hiding of costs through
> > various mechanisms The bright people around here can probably add
> two
> > or three more cost hiding/transfer mechanisms in further 
> discussion.
> >
> > Jim - I do so agree that we need to own up to our participation in
> the
> > whole process, and not foist the responisiblity off onto somebody 
> or
> > something else. My driving habits drive the need for more oil 
> wells,
> > oil wells will leak/spill oil even if handled with the highest
> degree
> > of professionalism, so part of the "fault" of the catastrophe in 
> the
> > gulf is mine. The owners/stockholders of record at the time of the
> > blowout have a larger, more direct responsibility since they own 
> the
> > entity which acted in a less than perfectly professional manner. 
> (If
> > you want the profits - you should take responsibilty for the oopes
> > also. IMHO)
> >
> > On 06/18/2010 11:25:55 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> >> I am willing to pay MUCH more on my plane tickets if the extra $$
> >> goes
> >> to
> >> improve service and reliability and safety, etc.
> >>
> >> We have developed too much of the walmart mentality for my tastes.
> >> cut
> >> costs
> >> to save $ with no regard for the quality (or lack) or damage it
> does
> >> to the
> >> surrounding.
> >>
> >> We _so_ need to start evaluating our own individual participation
> in
> >> the
> >> process around us.
> >>
> >> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Greg Freemyer
> >> <greg.freemyer at gmail.com>wrote:
> >>
> >> > Damn,
> >> >
> >> > I guess we should blame the passengers if a commercial airplane
> >> > crashes due to poor maintenance and pilot error.
> >> >
> >> > Greg
> >> >
> >> > On 6/18/10, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2010/05/31/mike-luckovich-
> >> june-1-cartoon/
> >> > >
> > <<snip for brevity>>
> >
> >
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