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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (24719)	8/31/1998 12:48:00 AM
From: Aaron Cooperband	Respond to of 108807

Christine - Re: "I believe legislation is necessary to assure reasonable emissions standards" Legislation is already in place mandating minimum average gas mileage for vehicles sold. The US companies are failing to meet these minimums because the consumer insists on buying low mileage SUVs! To avoid being declared in violation of these regulations, the companies are borrowing mileage from forward years to bring their average to acceptable levels - something allowed in the legislation. We can argue about whether this legislation was flawed because of the loophole, but that is not the issue. Any time the government tries to force people to do things they otherwise wouldn't do, the people try their best to circumvent the regulations. Any legislation will have holes in it somewhere which some smart person will be able to find and take advantage of. Then we end up with teams of lawyers battling back and forth - some teams finding loopholes and other teams closing them. This is obviously not a desirable goal. Instead of concentrating on forcing people to do something the don't want to do - buy compact cars instead of SUVs, ride a bike instead of drive, etc., why don't you take a different tack? How about promoting telecommuting instead? This would save a tremendous amount of fuel and increase productivity (no time stuck in traffic!). It would also play off one of the US's strengths - high tech. Re: " I do disagree that countries with high gasoline taxes always operate at a disadvantage, however" Any time a government forces its citizens to do something they wouldn't have done naturally, it is economically inefficient. This is my point. Maybe I should have said "all things being equal, high gasoline taxes make an economy less efficient." Aaron