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To the People |
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I agree that subsidizing hybrid owners is wrong (and I own a Prius), but public transit riders are subsidized at roughly a 50% rate. Without subsidies, the cost of a public transit ride would be about double the cost it is presently. |
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Alas, I am not too young to remember when it was called "mass transit." Yes, it is subsidized. |
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Congress has been focused on the wrong thing to help reduce emissions: the vehicle that one drives versus how much one actually drives. These two issues aren't at odds with one another: Both how far you drive, AND how efficient your vehicle is figure into total fuel use. If congress had focused on how much people drive (instead of what they drive), and based an incentive on that alone, you could make the same argument. Of course, it would still be flawed, since it's really "fuel consumption", not "emissions" that you're talking about here -- but, just for the sake of argument, let's pretend they're one & the same: Congress gave tax deductions to hybrid drivers of up to $3,150 Actually, as of 2006, it's a tax credit, not a tax deduction. Big difference, but not the point. a commuter who drives 200 miles a day to work gets rewarded with a big tax [credit]... Only if that commuter drives a hybrid. All those other 200-mile-per-day commuters don't. Sounds like the incentive is going to the "reduced-emissions" commuters to me. (Of course, all those 200 mile per day commuters who walk to work are kind'a screwed, but they're probably a much bigger burden on the health care system, so maybe it all evens out.) Likewise, the hybrid-driver who only commutes 5-miles per day to work is the one getting the incentive, as opposed to all the regular-car-drivers who commute 5-miles per day. Again, the incentive goes to the "emission-reducers". ...while someone who takes public transit, walks to work, bikes or works at home gets nothing... Sure he does -- he gets to work without having to spend so much money on gas (or gas taxes) or a car (or car taxes; hybrid, or otherwise). ...and de facto subsidizes the long-mileage commuters. If that were true, wouldn't he be subsidizing the short-mileage hybrid-driving commuters as well? Distance has nothing to do with who's being subsidized here -- if you can call letting people keep the money they've earned, rather than taxing it away from them, a "subsidy", that is. The proposed CAFE standards could basically make high-performance cars illegal. Yep. And that sucks. should the Metro commuting worker be disallowed his weekend zoom... No. Zoom, zoom, zoom! (I love those commercials.) ...while his Prius driving co-workers guzzle gas all week long on their 200 mile daily commute Again, one thing has nothing to do with the other. Let the Prius-driver zoom on the weekends too! It's not like he's not getting a tax-break for it! |
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