I'm no economist, but I play one on my blog. One of the basic tenets of econ is that individuals won't behave in a way that violates their economic best interest (otherwise all bets are off and economists would be out of a job).
Of course, that doesn't exactly ring true in many cases. Take interests payments. It makes economic sense to pay off loans at a high interest rate rather than stick money into a low interest savings account, but how many people pay the minimum payment on their credit card bill and invest the rest?
So I read of this (via Jill at Skippy) and the neurons retaining the flotsam of Econ 201 started that chemical cascade we call memory. (Cool how that still works.)
Link: Hybrids could pay more gas tax / U.S. to study tariffs on miles driven, not gallons purchased.
A switch in the way the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax is levied could be in the offing, making it more of a user fee than a tax. By unanimous voice vote, the Senate Finance Committee approved legislation Tuesday to establish a 15-member commission to report back within two years on ways to ensure enough tax revenue to pay for the nation's highway, bridge and public transit programs.
High on the list the panel will consider is the per-mile fee that is already the subject of a $1.25 million pilot project in Oregon that will use a special "smart'' odometer coupled with a global positioning system in every vehicle, a system invented at Oregon State University.
The problem is, those people with long commutes who buy a gas saving car will pay the same tax as they would if they were driving a Hummer. They're not rewarded for buying a fuel efficient car, except for those thumbs up from fellow green motorists. Thus, the economic principle of people behaving according to their best interests kicks in. We'll all be dodging Expeditionary Behemoths with our no-longer-financially-smart Smart cars if this idea takes hold, and these days I don't put any form of idiocy past them.
The libertarian in me (who I think hides in my uterus) whispers to me this isn't a good idea for privacy wonks, either, since the technology that would enable the guvment to track our highway usage would also tell where we've been via GPS technology. It's bad enough they knew when we go to subversive countries like France, do we really want them to know when we go to Santa Fe too?
Those of us who'd like to leave the earth somewhat less abused than we found it should vociferously protest this idea. Consider this my vociferous protest, for now.
