So the Israeli government has found another way to milk car owners' money. Not only do they charge more than 100% tax on fuel and about 100% tax on purchasing a new car, they began an experiment in "pay per mile" (well, "pay per kilometer", but "mile" sounds better).
A few hundred volunteers installed the system in their cars - a GPS wirelessly (I think) connected to a central system which monitors the car's position every minute. Then the car owner pays tax according to its mileage. They say this will replace some of the above mentioned taxes, but I bet my car that it will cost more for the average driver than before.
They won't fail Haggai, I wish I could say differently. I felt the same way about the London central zone congestion charge which was implemented a few years ago. I sat back and, in my naivitee, looked forward to a motorists' rebellion. Nothing of the sort. Everyone did just what they always do: divided up into two groups (three if you include the group who have no opinion about anything ever). On one side the sycophantic sheep who voiced loud and self righteous approval of the scheme, on the other side the complainants who, with some justification, moaned long and just as loudly. Bottom line, everyone went ahead and did exactly as they were told, as per usual.
It's a variation on a theme, that of treating the motorist as a bottomless money pit. These measures are only the beginning. We already have long stretches of toll roads, very similar to your country's 'pay as you go' scheme, and without a doubt, sooner or later this will be extended nationwide to cover all roads.
I might find it more bearable if public transport over here were more (1) Affordable (2) Reliable (3) Comfortable (4) Convenient, and/or if the money raised from robbing motorists really did go towards improving and/or subsidising trains and buses. But it doesn't.. |(
Don't ever count on the sheeple to do anything. If what I've hear about london is true you are probably one of the minorities there, caring about rights and paying attention to what the goverment is doing. :P As you can tell I have a great love for England. :)
If everyone just stopped driving cars, they would take tax money elsewhere.
They usually claim taxing cars because of environment but it is just the cold cash. If the environment were the real cause, many taxes at least here would be differently made or obsolete.
For example:
We have a yearly tax based on carbon emission (i.e. engine size).
So, if you have a V8 which you drive 300miles a summer at nice weather, you pay more tax per year than me doing 25000 miles.
Guess which has more emissions?
Naturally we have also tons of taxes in gas.
All taxes to cars whatsoever should be in FUEL and in fuel only.
If you use, you pay, use more, you pay more.
If we raise taxes for just keeping a car, I cannot see why then justify it by reducing emissions. For example, many families need 2 cars but the second one tends to be a beater used only very occasionally but still, it is a must. Gets expensive to keep it even you don´t drive much.
We all get the government we deserve and/or tolerate. I think that if everyone could rap their minds around the concept of Liberty espoused in this short video and then applied a bit of third grade math to the many issues we face the world would be infinitely better place.
I will say that I give this thread a less than 50/50 chance of not spiraling out of control due to it's political nature.
Lensman, your country's (and especially city's) public transport is beyond the wildest dreams of public transport here.
I visited England twice and Scotland once and was amazed at how convenient public transport is, frequent, punctual, and even runs on Sundays. (here there's practically none on Saturdays, except for a very reduced service of intra-city buses in Haifa).
Here, private car owning (and a lot of use) is almost mandatory. It's almost inelastic demand, so the public will have no choice but to pay. Or rebel. So we'll pay, because public protests are a joke here.
I think the problem is that, historically, these types of threads on BLF (or anywhere) quickly spiral out of control and people can't seem to have a discussion where there will be no consensus, then shake hands and walk away still friends.
That was only the most recent example. I don't know if you've seen the video I linked to in post 5, but you may want to pass it around to the non-libertarians in your life. The light bulb may just go off for one or two. It really lays out the philosophy in a concise and cogent way which, coupled with the vids soothing music, is hard to argue against.
It's not that, cone. Just that I've no clue as to who 'Ron Paul' is.. No offense, I've no idea who most British politicians are, either. I'm afraid I've become so cynical that I no longer quite believe that democracy is actually 'real', that is, that the voting counts for anything.
Before someone asks me "Well ok then, who do you think IS in charge?" I have to say I honestly have no idea, it's just getting harder all the time to believe that there isn't some organisation deciding who's going to be the next government, and then anouncing that she/he/they got the most votes. I just find it hard to believe that twice, in recent UK history, two of the most universally hated human beings on the planet (I refer to Blair and Thatcher) each got voted back into power for a third term. And if it IS actually true, then what value to this so-called 'democracy'?
