"In any case, there is always public transportation."
Maybe in New York, Washington, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, SF and LA. I seldom use public transportation in the US myself, and I don't enjoy it when I do. You spend more time waiting than moving.
A person driving a 14 mpg SRV for 14,000 miles a year would pay $2,500 for gasoline at that price. Air fares, trucking rates, heating bills, and much else would be directly and immediately hit, resulting in something like a 10 percent across-the-board excise tax. Most of this money would leave the United States because of oil imports. Whenever the trade deficit begins to look bad enough (it already is, it seems to me), and if the dollar declines as a result, all these effects would be magnified. As I said, the US is vulnerable because we have not compelled efficiencies by taxing gas and oil. |
