6 ms·

IIRC if you have a vehicle with a body on frame truck chassis and claim it is used 51% or more for business purpose you can pay much lower registration.

causality0 5y ago
It is perverse that vehicle registration isn't limited by law to at-cost fees.
- eqvinox 5y ago
  Why is it perverse? It's a tax like many others?
  - Enginerrrd 5y ago
    Because a car in America is fairly essential for upward mobility and that tax hits the poorest the hardest making it harder to keep that car. It's effectively rent-seeking for a low-level good without taking into account usage. They can't scale back usage to reduce that tax. It just is. Compare it to similar rent-seeking taxes on land ownership (i.e. property taxes), which affect wealthier people more able to afford the tax. I know when I was a college student, affording the registration and bare-bone insurance payments on my 25 year old honda was actually pretty non-trivial. If I couldn't afford gas on a particular month, I could find creative ways to ride-share / take public transit (sometimes) / not drive / etc. But that didn't do ANYTHING to my registration payment.
    - nicoburns 5y ago
      > Because a car in America is fairly essential for upward mobility Really it's this that ought to be changed. Although I realise that's a much bigger task.
      - Enginerrrd 5y ago
        Yeah... The rise of remote work may help that situation. But as a whole, the solutions are probably borderline infeasible since the US is just so spread out.
      - IgorPartola 5y ago
        Sure. Go ahead and get your land mass compressor out. North America is huge and spread out.
        nicoburns 5y ago
        You don't need to compress the land mass, just the people within it.
  - causality0 5y ago
    That's fine, as long as it's in actual proportion to cost. For example, a single semi truck does as much damage to the road surface as 9,600 sedans. I'm more than happy to pay my fair share.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  Are you sure you want that? If we include environmental damage in those costs I don’t think it’ll get cheaper.

causality0 5y ago

It is perverse that vehicle registration isn't limited by law to at-cost fees.

eqvinox 5y ago
Why is it perverse? It's a tax like many others?
- Enginerrrd 5y ago
  Because a car in America is fairly essential for upward mobility and that tax hits the poorest the hardest making it harder to keep that car. It's effectively rent-seeking for a low-level good without taking into account usage. They can't scale back usage to reduce that tax. It just is. Compare it to similar rent-seeking taxes on land ownership (i.e. property taxes), which affect wealthier people more able to afford the tax. I know when I was a college student, affording the registration and bare-bone insurance payments on my 25 year old honda was actually pretty non-trivial. If I couldn't afford gas on a particular month, I could find creative ways to ride-share / take public transit (sometimes) / not drive / etc. But that didn't do ANYTHING to my registration payment.
  - nicoburns 5y ago
    > Because a car in America is fairly essential for upward mobility Really it's this that ought to be changed. Although I realise that's a much bigger task.
    - Enginerrrd 5y ago
      Yeah... The rise of remote work may help that situation. But as a whole, the solutions are probably borderline infeasible since the US is just so spread out.
    - IgorPartola 5y ago
      Sure. Go ahead and get your land mass compressor out. North America is huge and spread out.
      - nicoburns 5y ago
        You don't need to compress the land mass, just the people within it.
- causality0 5y ago
  That's fine, as long as it's in actual proportion to cost. For example, a single semi truck does as much damage to the road surface as 9,600 sedans. I'm more than happy to pay my fair share.
lostlogin 5y ago
Are you sure you want that? If we include environmental damage in those costs I don’t think it’ll get cheaper.