With gas nearing $4 per gallon Clinton and McCain are calling for a suspension of the gas tax for the summer. Obama is calling this pandering and that this policy will not help the consumers. Obama is right on this as practically all economists say suspending the gas tax has no effect. Of course Obama has not put out any energy ideas either. The truth is no politician has the vison to really change our energy policy. And if one has the vison he or she will probably be defeated at the polls.
Couple of years ago when gas approached $3 and there was the call to lower the gas tax and drill in Alaska, I said that those are not policies that would do any good. I said that we should RAISE the tax so that gas is $5 per gallon and thus shocked the nation into really look for alternative energy and stop wasting. Well, I was wrong because now we are almost at $5 without increasing taxes and we have not been shocked into doing things differently. Alaska and lowering the gas tax are still the things on the table. We are still driving huge SUVs.
To see how inept our politicians are look at how they can't even do the things that are obvious. If you want people to decrease gas usage and increase the use of alternative energy, then it would be obvious that you raise the tax on gasoline and give tax credit for using alternative energy. Instead the oil companies continue to get tax subsidies of billions of dollars. At the same time the tax credits for buying hybrids and investment stimulus for wind and solar energy are allowed to expired. In Europe and Japan the gas prices are much higher and they invest more than us in alternative energy. But don't just blame our politicians. Remember when I said that we should raise the gas tax instead of lowering it, I also said that I would never get elected to office if I advocated that. American people expect pandering from the politicans. We would never accept bitter medicine until we are at deathbed. We get the politicians that we deserve.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
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I was wondering if you would blog about gas prices. As soon as prices skyrocketed, I thought about your old blog about raising the tax. At the time I thought you were crazy to suggest it even though your intentions are good.
ReplyDeleteLet's be realistic and say that politicians really don't care how much the common person pays for gas. I believe that most politicians are so removed from the general public that they have no clue what it's like to struggle to pay for gas.
I don't understand how countries can let OPEC artificially jack up oil prices like it has the last year. Supposedly demand is down but oil prices are at an all-time high?!
I also think that Americans will never change their ways. I know I will never consider public transportation here in Detroit.
So the responsibility falls back onto government and car companies. I really don't have any faith in both to do what's right and find alternate fuel sources any time soon. Both have a lot invested in the oil companies.
This E85 thing is a disaster too and they need to put a stop to it or change the crop that goes into it. Who knew that using an abundant crop like corn would raise prices on corn, beef, etc.?
Plus, the gas mileage you receive with E85 is lower, so it's really just a wash.
I am wondering if an election of a democrat would help relations in the middle east to the point where maybe oil prices will go down. I am more apprehensive to vote for McCain because of this. As much as I'd like to see us finish the job in Iraq, I think the longer we stay there, the higher oil prices will go up.
-LBOAYM
First of all I don't think a Democratic president would make any difference with the Middle East oil countries. The U.S. have always been as friendly as possible to the dictators of the region to get the supplies needed. So we will always sell weapsons to Saudi Arabia even though we are also selling to our ally Israel. Oil prices may come down for a while but will always go up generally because the demand will always go up with China and India modernizing unless alternative energy are found. Some of the current increase besides the law of supply and demand is that futures prices (capitalist system) have gone up with the expected increase in demand and the always uncertainty in the region (partly our political policy) and the loss of our dollar buying power (our economic policy and our own overspending). So unless we raise the taxes to discourage use and spend more on alternatives there is no really other good answers in my opinion. There is no chance that any politician have the will to do this.
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