Gas prices - or - I thought communism died the death it deserved!

["B. A. Coburn" <bacoburn@domain.elided>]

Will have to respond to the comments sent in by Mr. Clauss.  While I agree
that the average US bonehead driving an SUV and/or an underutilized
Pickem-up truck has nothing to complain about as they made a choice and now
have to live with it.  Let's view the desired fixes with a great degree of
skeptisim as the blindness can lead to all driving Yugos!

Thankfully, all things tend to settle out. I am curious: with the price of
oil climbing due to a cutback in production, how is more money available to
the countries that produce if less is produced?  With production increasing,
prices are going down...  Pesky that supply and demand stuff...

Now some tax reality and the slugs in government fixing things:
In regards to tax reductions etc., note that the price of an airline ticket
includes money for the improvement of the infastructure of airports and air
traffic control.  Congress has only now released some of the billions
collected for that purpose.  Seems that the tax has been in place since the
70's.  Curious how taxes, once collected, get funnelled into studing cow
flatulence and other vote buying from constiuents 'acts'.  Here in DC
(Disneyland on the Potomac) the DC government wanted to give bonuses to the
unionized (only) District employees with the money gained from the tobacco
settlement.  So much for repaying expenses incurred with medical coverage
losses and so much for distributing it equally.  I'll bet, of the money
collected in the increased gas tax in 1991, nary a dime was spent fixing a
pothole.  

Back on a positive note: I too will also be glad to see the SUVs relegated
to a footnote in driving history.  However, let's also remember the drivers
of the 'gas guzzling' 3.0L Verdes and 164s.

B. A. Coburn
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 08:49:27 -0500
From: Robert Clauss <beckyco@domain.elided>
Subject: gas prices

Regarding gas prices- we would like to see gasoline priced at about
$2.00/gallon. It will put prices more inline with the rest of the world,
encourage conservation, provide much needed capital for the South American
oil producing nations that have been unable to pay their debts (not to
mention being unable to provide basic services for their citizens), and
drive a bunch of people off of the road who don't need to be driving around.
A bunch of rich, spoiled Americans crying because it costs too much to fill
up their gas guzzling SUV's and pickup trucks - it makes me sick. Congress
wants to repeal the federal gas tax - great idea until you hit the pothole
there is no money to fix.  How about a temporary gas subsidy for the poor
(under 20k income) so that they can get to work. Everyone else should pay,
and pay more.

Robert Clauss  AROC, ARA
BeckyCo@domain.elided
Mt. Prospect, IL  USA

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