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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (71039)	6/7/2008 10:26:16 AM
From: Sam	Respond to of 542169

"You want more fuel-efficient cars? Don't regulate. Don't mandate. Don't scold. Don't appeal to the better angels of our nature. Do one thing: Hike the cost of gas until you find the price point." Actually, there have been environmentalists who have proposed that for years for all sorts of reasons including more fuel efficient cars and in anticipation of the current situation since it was all but inevitable at some point They have continually been shot down because they were told that raising the gas tax was politically impossible. They wanted to raise it gradually by 10-20 cents per year. Although it is also true that unlike K they wanted CAFE standards as well. Like most other countries--they do both.

To: Lane3 who wrote (71039)	6/7/2008 11:22:39 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Respond to of 542169

<<<You simply got sidetracked and missed his point. >>> You are right. What we are missing are his long standing justification for his primary beliefs : 1. Rationale to go to war (in the ME). 2. Rationale to advoccate torture (in the US justice system). 3. Rationale to prevent regulation that may end freedom for those that want to destroy the planet, to accumulate as much wealth as possible, and to get the best health care money can buy. He is one those fairly smart people that can find dilemma with our cherished ethical beliefs in: 1. Thou shalt not kill. 2. First thing is to do no harm. 3. All men are created equal. Krauthammer has some visceral beliefs. And what Krauthammer wants, Krauthammer will find some ethical dilemma with conventional ethical beliefs to justify his visceral beliefs or perhaps needs. His default position on all of this is Aynrandesque.

To: Lane3 who wrote (71039)	6/9/2008 2:29:23 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542169

I got sidetracked over the weekend and am sorry I didn't get back to your thoughtful response sooner. I was indeed focused somewhat narrowly. What hit my hot button was his suggestion to reduce demand by raising taxes. I'm looking at this broadly and somewhat simplistically, in that inflation is perhaps capitalism's greatest enemy. Starting with that premise, my mind then goes to the fact that no single thing can drive inflation more than can the price of a barrel of oil. Gasoline prices are only part of the negative impact of higher oil but probably have the most devastating impact on the economy. To slap new taxes on it and thus raise the price even higher in an effort to reduce demand hits me as an approach similar to putting leaches on a patient in the Middle Ages to thin the blood. I also thought that it was bizarre to have a right-winger like Krauthammer advocating using tax increases in such a way. I assume he would argue that higher income taxes would dampen the economy, so why one and not the other? Furthermore, his comparing this country to Europe showed a surprising ignorance of the well known differences between us and them in terms of geography, public transportation, and social acceptance of smaller cars.