"Ed Huntress" wrote:


"Wes" wrote in message
...
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

But SUV/light-truck sales have inched up from 45% of total vehicle sales
to
49%, so we'll screw ourselves again soon, either way. Foreign oil
producers
were getting $700 billion/year from us not long ago. They know we're too
knuckleheaded to impose a big gasoline tax, so the Russians, Iranians, and
Venezuelans are counting on us to come through for them, once again.


And where would that big gasoline tax go pray tell?

Wes

Right here in the U.S. of A., as opposed to what will happen if we *don't*
put a floor on prices -- which is to send the equivalent amount to Saudi
Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, the U.A.R., Kuwait, etc., etc.

When I asked where will the revenue go, I ment it in the sense of how it is going to be
used. Government will spend it on something. One would like to see debts paid down but I
would not bet anything worth much on that. I have a feeling government will just get
addicted to it and squander it. Then when oil prices rise they will want to keep the
revenue.

Next, a gas tax is regressive. Something I keep being told is bad. If I make 500K a
year, gas isn't a problem. If I was working at walmart or some other low wage job out in
flyover country where the comute tends to be over many miles it would be a big bite out of
the budget.


Put a $4 floor on prices, using an adjustable tax (phased in over, say, two
years), and it will keep a lid on demand that will force the oil producers
to play at a much lower different supply/demand equilibrium; keep more of
the money in the US; shift the market so that US car builders have a market
for fuel-efficient cars; create a market for alternative energy; etc.

US car builders don't need a market. The dems have increased CAFE standards and I suspect
the standards are going be tweeked upwards very soon. The market will exist by
legislation.


Other than that, there will be lots for short-sighted people to bitch about.
And they will. There's little chance any of this can happen in the US. Most
likely we'll just go through the same old cycle again, in which we buy
bigger cars and trucks when prices are low, then prices go up and we all
bitch, and US car builders tank again. Then we'll find other people to blame
for something we did to ourselves.

Well foolish people will buy bigger cars. Should we out law freedom of choice?
The chance of me ever owning a car getting 30 mpg again is slight. I know the roadmap a
head.


We doom ourselves to this cycle. The market is just behaving like markets
do, despite the mostly futile efforts of OPEC to control prices. They almost
never succeed at that and they're failing big-time right now. But the market
will do it for them, once economies bottom out of this slump.

Likely so but low energy cost may be one of those things that help us get out of this
slump. You seem to be advocating digging a deeper hole to climb out of at this time.

Right now I'm driving the same, putting a extra 200 bucks a month aside for when the
economy goes over the edge. Hope it doesn't happen.

Wes

PS

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas.