From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hp-pcd!courtney
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: Re: gas tax - (nf)
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.543
Posted: Wed Dec 15 12:03:33 1982
Received: Fri Dec 17 06:26:32 1982

#R:floyd:-88200:hp-pcd:17400003:000:1054
hp-pcd!courtney    Dec 15 09:00:00 1982




Another aspect to Keith's response: "the consumer will pay
either way" ...This is not true when you stop looking at the
group as a whole and consider how the individuals within the
group are being affected. 
   Consider, for instance, an individual who does quite a bit
of driving and yet does NOT consume a large number of goods
which have been transported by truck (probably most goods,
but there ARE people who don't buy a lot of STUFF).  This
person does not cause wear-and-tear on the roads to the
degree that s/he is paying for them in a gas tax such as the
one being instituted.
   For the market to work, the USER should pay for the
services/goods consumed.  Sure, higher taxes for truckers
would be passed on to the consumer, but only to those
consumers who's demand-pull put those trucks on the road
in the first place.  I see no need for a trucking subsidy.
Let the trucking industry pay for the damage that it
imposes on the roads and let the "trucked-goods consumer"
pay for those goods at their "true" cost (as if that was
possible...).