One year ago, when gas was around $2.60/gallon, I remember hearing interviews where the reporter asked, “How high will gas prices need to go before you’ll change your driving habits?” The answer was almost always $3/gallon. Here we are now, with gas prices reaching over $4/gallon, with not many signs of people making an effort to reduce their fuel consumption.
I have an idea. Let’s have a driving tax. It’ll be based on annual mileage, so the more you drive, the more you pay. If you live in the suburbs and commute an hour one way, you’ll be taxed heavily. If you live in the city and take the train to work, you pay nothing.
The tax will go into researching alternative energy and reducing overall gas prices. The lowered prices will reward those who don’t drive often by offering less of an up-front cost. Those who decide they need to drive an SUV with a huge V8 engine can pay a premium. The key is to make people with inefficient driving habits pay more.
With gas companies reporting record profits, it’s safe to say consumers are willing to pay exorbitant prices to continue driving. Why don’t we take some of that money and put it to use?
UPDATE:
To the rebloggers saying, “well what if people have no choice BUT to drive,” that’s what tax breaks are for.
If John drives a Civic 25,000 miles, and Gertrude drives a Hummer just 5,000 miles, is there justification in charging the Hummer owner a premium? You can’t make people pay more based on the vehicle they own. It has to be on how much gas they’re actually consuming per year.
If you’re pissed that you have to pay more so you can enjoy the scenery in the countryside, sorry, but that should be the price you pay so that scenery can keep existing.
i) we already have something called a ‘gas tax’, where people are taxed based on how much gas they consume. you may have heard of this, it’s been kind of a big issue lately.
