Obama Floating Plan To Tax Drivers By The Mile

[dross]

This is the same argument being made for health care -- because it's "special", highly demanded, limited in supply, and easy to abuse, government should manage it.

I firmly believe that the more scarce a resource, the more necessary that it be managed by market processes instead of by fiat. You're right that I will probably never give up that belief.

There are already property-rights-based solutions to this problem.

You're right a lot of the time, but oddly, never when you argue with me.

 

[scott delaney]

i think big brother is in our day 2 day life to much the way it is and i think with things the way there are i want to keep them from reaching deeper in my pocket

 

[TRWXXA]

2: turn all interstates into toll roads, with a pikepass-style system, specifically designed to be read at speed. In Oklahoma, if you've got a pikepass, you blaze through the tollbooths at 75 miles an hour.

Another oportunity for the effing government to f@#% you. Some states (mostly the ones that are choking on their deficits) have discussed using the "EZ Pass" type systems for speed enforcement. If your average speed between two toll plazas exceeds the posted speed limit, your ticket is in the mail.

Of course the day after such a plan was implimented, the state would find themselves with dumpsters full of used EZ Pass transponders.

 

[hornadylnl]

Instead of thinking up every possible way to wring more money out of all of us, those slimeballs in congress need to start thinking of ways to reduce our spending.

How do you propose to cut spending? The American people are so entrenched in the welfare state, I don't think you could cut any single portion of the budget without having at least 20% of the population get extremely vocal about. Those that get vocal, vote.

 

[dross]

How do you propose to cut spending? The American people are so entrenched in the welfare state, I don't think you could cut any single portion of the budget without having at least 20% of the population get extremely vocal about. Those that get vocal, vote.

This statement is already proven. Cutting less than 1% of the spending increase in this year's budget already caused screams of agony.

If you actually proposed CUTS? Meaning you actually spent less next year than you did this year, which as far as I know has NEVER been proposed seriously, why that would cause wails and cries from sea to shining sea.

 

[hornadylnl]

This statement is already proven. Cutting less than 1% of the spending increase in this year's budget already caused screams of agony.

If you actually proposed CUTS? Meaning you actually spent less next year than you did this year, which as far as I know has NEVER been proposed seriously, why that would cause wails and cries from sea to shining sea.

So why do we pretend that elections matter? We know neither side is going to propose substantive cuts. What did they settle on, $30 billion? How much interest are we paying on our debt to china?

 

[ATOMonkey]

So why do we pretend that elections matter? We know neither side is going to propose substantive cuts. What did they settle on, $30 billion? How much interest are we paying on our debt to china?

About $150B per year, on marginally zero interst rates.

To be fair, we're paying most of that to the Fed Reserve and Pensions.

China is the largest foreign soverign holder of debt, but not the largest holder of debt.

Imagine what a prime rate of just 5% would do.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Okay, so I buy a section of road in the middle of Kansas or Texas or somewhere, and then I buy the land around it. Now I decide to charge twenty dollars per vehicle to go through my two-mile section. The only way around my section is a diversion of hundreds of miles.

Tell me why this wouldn't happen, or the solution if it does, or why we don't need a solution?

Ok, you basically create a boundary or boarder with a disincentive to cross it.

What does that do? Forces localism and drives up the prices of goods and/or services.

It also would make you very unpopular, and if you have the right to do that, then I have the right to refuse you service.

 

[Fletch]

Ok, you basically create a boundary or boarder with a disincentive to cross it.

What does that do? Forces localism and drives up the prices of goods and/or services.

It also wouldn't make you very unpopular, and if you have the righ to do that, then I have the right to refuse you service.

I think a lot of people tend to underestimate the weight that "personal reputation" would carry in a libertarian society. It is presently minimized by legislation, but without those laws folks would be a lot more likely to personally punish bad reputations in ways like you suggest.