The federal gas tax produces more revenue than is needed to do maintenance needed to deal with the wear and tear caused by cars on interstates.
Where did you read that? That's not what I've seen.
The government often spends less on road maintenance than the tax brings in. Also I'm just talking about cars, a lot of wear the damage to roads is done by large trucks.
You need to understand what the gas tax is for:
artba.org
What about new transportation......like new freeways, new subways, new light rail etc. Its all coming out of the same slush fund.
The cost for rails and subways aren't the costs of automobile use. New freeways largely are (although again trucks play a role). Some new roads get paid for by tolls (for example the Dulles Greenway, or in part by tolls (Dulles Toll Road).
Do you have any idea how much money has been spent for all the roads in this country.....including freeways, state highways, local roads? How much money has been spent on their construction, on signage and lighting, on policing, on maintenance and on clearing them of snow and ice? If you don't think that's a huge subsidy, then there is no sense continuing this discussion.
The others, well if you consider ALL the costs that drivers pay (gasoline tax, personal property tax, sales tax on the car, traffic and parking tickets in excess of the cost to run the traffic courts and enforce the traffic laws, tolls, etc.), they might be enough. If they aren't, and there is a net subsidy, its probably a much smaller percent than many other forms of transportation, esp. if you consider the government/public benefit use and subtract out some dollar benefit for such use.
I doubt it.......see my paragraph above.
Absent the subsidies some airlines would go under. I say let them. The rest should be more capable of making a profit.
They go under all the time. Some of our largest airlines have filed bankruptcy in the last 5 years.
They don't go out often enough. They file bankruptcy but often continue to operate under bankruptcy. The P/L is bad because on the average their is overcapacity.
The bottom line is they are a financial mess and you wouldn't have any airlines if they weren't subsidized by the gov't. |
