[ale] [OT] cartoon on BP spill blame

[Michael Potter]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 7:59 PM, Preston Boyington
<preston.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> Michael Potter wrote:
>> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 6:41 PM, Preston Boyington
>> <preston.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Michael Potter wrote:
>>> <snipped>
>>>> The government should just tax gas such that people will make better
>>>> choices for which cars they buy and which cars they drive.
>>> heh, 'they should force <thing i dislike> out of business/tax it to
>>> pieces!  that will show them!', but when it's something that near to
>>> your heart all you hear is 'they are taking away my freedom!  do you see
>>> how invasive they are!'
>>>
>>>
>>
>> You have snipped my post out of context.
>> The context of my post was that taxing gas is a better alternative to
>> milage standards.
>>
>
>
> i fail to see how .  government already sets emissions and fuel
> consumption requirements for mass produced autos.  all the MPG sticker
> does is give the consumer a ball park figure on what the said vehicle
> should produce under average usage.
>
> your post seemed to promote a forced supply & demand model by the users
> being taxed into a vehicle that might not want solely because of a 'sin
> tax'.

I am promoting the idea that the government should not create
complicated laws requiring the auto companies to meet fuel consumption
requirements.  That is way to invasive into business.

The complicated laws increase the cost of production of the vehicle
and is essentially a tax.  The car companies make design and
production decisions based on the laws and produce vehicles that
people might otherwise not buy.  Car companies have to meet minimum
average MPG; to do that they produce more small cars even tho the
market is not there.  They then give adjust prices to sell enough
small cars so they can sell the higher profit larger cars.  This
artificial pricing is not good for an efficient market.

If the government wants to promote reducing the amount of gasoline
used, then it would be more effective to increase the tax on gasoline.

If someone wants to say the government should do neither, then my
libertarian part of my brain would not argue.  But I would be willing
to debate that increasing the tax on gasoline is a lesser evil than
the CAFE standards.