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Strange they skipped the step of 1) taxing cars which cause more injuries per mile, 2) taxing resources (including externality cost) so that if you use more, y
by epivosism 3y ago
Strange they skipped the step of 1) taxing cars which cause more injuries per mile, 2) taxing resources (including externality cost) so that if you use more, you pay more.
Instead they are taxing a pretty bad proxy for those actual policy goals.
i.e. this incentivizes companies to reduce weight rather than add safety measures, and to use light materials regardless of if they cause more environmental damage. Hypothetical example: carmakers might use more aluminum & titanium, which may cause lots of harm to produce, rather than iron.
Just tax the thing you don't like: pollution & using resources you want to control distribution of.
Wired has really fallen. It's like they don't understand markets or incentives at all. Also - isn't tesla one of the safest cars on the road per mile? So it's really inane to write a hit piece on their alleged safety without say actually looking at their safety results
- chii 3y ago> Just tax the thing you don't like and in a democracy, this can't happen because those being taxed have political power to prevent it, or dilute it. Therefore, a proxy gets taxed indirectly, which also dilutes the said tax to more constituents, thus spreading it out thinly enough to not "cause" the ruckus in said group of constituents.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- xethos 3y ago> Wired has really fallen I mean maybe, but TFA is from Slate. Moreover, the article argues in favour of taxing the thing we want less of: weight. Weight means more power required to start, more mass to change direction and stop, more materials required for the larger batteries, and more of a literal impact on pedestrians.
- ForestCritter 3y agoIt also often equates to safer vehicles. Crash safety matters.
- xethos 3y agoOnly to the people inside. Though per US crash regulations (until recently), anything and anyone else was literally an externality.
- coredog64 3y agoIn the early 70s, insurance companies were able to severely curtail the power levels of cars coming out of Detroit by pricing in the actual risk. If a car causes lots of injuries, then that needs to be priced into the insurance. Eventually, that won’t be a car you can buy.
- Slava_Propanei 3y ago[dead]