Another example is reducing fuel use: Any economist will tell you that if you want to reduce fuel use you can simply tax fuel (or tax it more heavily). Instead

Another example is reducing fuel use: Any economist will tell you that if you want to reduce fuel use you can simply tax fuel (or tax it more heavily). Instead we get things like CAFE standards, which are both less effective (more efficient cars = cheaper driving = some amount of additional driving) and probably more expensive for everyone involved (i.e. someone that doesn't drive much might be better off with a cheaper, less efficient car). But no politician is willing to buck up and propose a higher gas tax (in fact recently members of both parties in the US proposed a gas-tax holiday). (Note: there are other reasons why CAFE-type standards might be a good idea, but they are far from the most effective way to reduce fuel use).