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> What very few people talk about is eliminating taxes on diesel fuel. Oh no, a thousand times no. Individual trucks hauling goods around the world is awful to

> What very few people talk about is eliminating taxes on diesel fuel. Oh no, a thousand times no. Individual trucks hauling goods around the world is awful to the environment (and to the roads) and if the pollution was somehow priced in you’d be scared. And that is the real cost - we just ignore a decent chunk of it and leave it to the next generations as debt. The last thing we want is to encourage even more of this practice. Companies would immediately use the tax break as a competitive advantage and consumers would come to simply expect lower prices. We can’t keep destroying the planet like this.

magduf 8y ago
>Oh no, a thousand times no. Individual trucks hauling goods around the world is awful to the environment (and to the roads) In shorter-term economics, the roads are a MUCH bigger factor. Tractor-trailer trucks do an enormous amount of damage to the roads, due to physics (I believe the factor is related to weight to the 4th power). Basically, if we didn't have trucks like those, we wouldn't be spending even a fraction as much on road upkeep. Road maintenance costs governments a LOT of money, so it only makes perfect sense to have commercial trucking and diesel fuel taxes to pay for it. Really, what they should be doing is making it easier for stuff to be shipped by train, and then only trucked the last few miles.