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To fix the potholes and crumbling roads, federal, state and local governments rely on fuel taxes, which raise more than US$80 billion a year and pay for around three-quarters of what the U.S. spends on building new roads and maintaining them.
I recently purchased an electric car, the Tesla Model 3. While swerving down a particularly rutted highway in New York, the economist in me began to wonder, what will happen to the roads as fewer and fewer cars run on gasoline? Who will pay to fix the streets?
Will toll roads become universal to bridge the funding gap?
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How Electric Cars Could Make America's Crumbling Roads Even Worse
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Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
(Score: 1) by bussdriver on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:15AM (1 child)
Physics says velocity and mass are the biggest problem. Drive slower = make a cheaper longer lasting road. duh. HEAVY fast movers cost us the most. SHIPPING companies get measured by their capacity, not the vehicle weight. Don't like that? then buy local... we've been subsidizing teamsters at the expense of trains for generations now.
Electricity is a NECESSITY, it should have zero taxes.
BEST: stock trading sales tax. We all pay tax for real labor and real products and real services; but stock trading (gambling) pays no transaction taxes. Corporate profit taxes-- as labor goes down and is automated income taxes shrink; while corps make more due to increased productivity. Also, outsourcing benefits them less if they are taxed on those gains (more so if the # of external jobs is a factor. they can't hide people jobs while robot jobs are easily hidden.)
Local:
property tax. location dependent; dirt road? then you pay less. few people on your road? then you pay more.
State:
You pay tax every X years on your car anyway; either new plates, stupid stickers for your plates or a new car sales tax. Make & Model of the car is known. WEIGHT + odometer (impact of odometer is tiny but is multiplied by weight; commercial stuff already tracks miles.)
Federal:
new car sales tax.
income tax.
(Score: 1) by ChrisMaple on Wednesday February 27 2019, @05:10AM
Never sold stocks, have you? There's an SEC fee on each sale. It's negligible, but it does exist.