5.11.2006

 

Gas tax could fuel robotic freedom

In the May 15 issue of Time Magazine, columnist Joe Klein takes an interesting stance. The article is called A Fair Trade for Lower Gas Prices and his suggestion is simple: raise the gasoline tax to discourage consumption, and then give the money collected back to people:His idea for giving the money back, however, is convoluted.

The simple way to give the money back is through a central account that distributes money to all citizens, an idea first proposed in the article Robotic Freedom. If Klien's tax were distributed through the central account proposed in Robotic Freedom, it would be a great way to get the program started.

Americans consume something like 150 billion gallons of gasoline per year. So a tax of $1 per gallon would yield about $150 billion for distribution. $2 per gallon would yield $300 billion for distribution. The tax could be phased in over a 2 year period to minimize impact. The great thing is that people would be getting the money right back through the central account, so the net effect on the economy would be zero.

See Robotic Freedom for details on the central account, and a dozen other ways to provide additional funding for it.

Comments:
In the UK we're paying about over 6.3 bucks a gallon (if my wobbly maths are correct).

As a result the cars we buy are lot more efficent than the average US ones, my wifes car for example is less than a litre but will do 100mph with the air-con on and digital radio blasting.

But I can't say we're getting a better quality of life.

And there as much many truckers as ever.
 
The real simple way is to not take their money to begin with, right?

The gas prices alone are having an effect, this is silly.
 
For another interesting blog dealing with future tech, policy, etc.. Check out www.OffworldPlanning.org

It deals with space enterprise from all angles -- policy, technology, business, etc.

Similar to Robotic News, in that it provides a brief summary / commentary, and then a link to the original article.
 
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