Saturday, August 28, 2004
Hybrid cars = Higher Taxes
So you can't wait for the whole country to switch from those nasty fossil fuel autombiles to high-tech hybrid mobiles, right? Well, think again. It's gasoline taxes that help pay for road maintenance. Hybrid vehicles will require considerably less gasoline, producing considerably less revenue, but they will subject the roadways to an equal amount of wear and tear. Where will the lost money come from?
Some states are already investigating a pay-as-you-go plan with mileage charges, in one case, quoted as high as $1.23 per mile. The average Amercian drives his/her car 12,000 - 15,000 miles per year. So if you're perhaps a salesperson or a cab owner/driver or in any other profession that requires you to use your car --y'know, basic middle class work stuff-- it'll cost you an extra $15,000 to $18,000 per year for the privilege. The Good news is that people who eventually own Rolls Royce hybrids won't even feel it and they don't drive that much anyway. Of course, truckers will become a thing of the past as we switch to shipping products via the resurrected method of hydrogen balloons to keep costs down.
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