Gas Tax Controversy:Over at The Volokh Conspiracy,
Todd Zywicki has this post, about suspending the gas tax. Here is my opinion:
We should sharply increase the gas tax! And then (here's the novel part) actually spend the money on our roads!
It's time for the central planning zealots out there to admit that, for the vast majority of things Americans buy an automobile for, nothing does it better than a personal (or perhaps family) automobile. And they should stop trying to make the personal automobile do things it doesn't do well - like being a cooperative jitney (read carpool), or trying to make other things - like railroad trains - do what it does so well.
In fact, the private automobile does what it does so well, that even after three decades of the planners' stealing the money automobile users pay to assure their right to freely use their automobile, and then spending it on all their pet projects - as well as all the planners' efforts to usurp the private automobile users' freedom to use their cars as they please... all these things which, compounded, make operation of a private automobile - particularly in urban areas - a frequently unpleasant, or even maddening, chore, the vast majority of Americans still resist their plans. Further, those compelled to participate in the planners' misbegotten schemes (the overwhelming majority of those who participate at all) aspire, NO! even lust, after joining the ranks of the private automobile users.
So... imagine that folks... triple or quadruple the current federal (and generally, state) highway transportation funds, actually spent on highway transportation! We could have those multiple deck expressways through urban areas (built to the standards of Germany’s Autobahn, not the silly putty crap we have here). We could have those "smart" highways. (Or, more likely, a network of smart cars on dumb highways, with the dumb cars relegated to the slow lanes.) We could even have driver training courses (no doubt privately operated, and funded by vouchers) that actually train our kids to drive - imagine that!
