YOU Smart owners are to blame!!

[vwW12]

Originally Posted by MsJoanne

Gas taxes are supposed to go to road maintainance

A common misconception.

Almost a fifth of your gas taxes do not go into roads and highways at all. Instead, a sizable portion of gas taxes go into big city pork. This is why the city unions (subway employees, bus drivers, city mechanics, etc.) are against relief to U.S. drivers.

These people need drivers in Atoka, Tennessee, and other rural towns, and even smart car drivers, to continue paying ever higher gasoline taxes so that they can keep their cushy, subsidized, big-city jobs.

[MsJoanne]

"Big Oil" is an idiotic name? What would you call $24 Billion dollars in profit in ONE quarter of 2008? And that was Shell and ExxonMobil alone. Again, $24BLLION for a single quarter in PROFITS for TWO companies. What might you call it? Your friendly neighborhood rapist? Ok, that works for me.

[MsJoanne]

Originally Posted by vwW12

A common misconception.

Almost a fifth of your gas taxes do not go into roads and highways at all. Instead, a sizable portion of gas taxes go into big city pork. This is why the city unions (subway employees, bus drivers, city mechanics, etc.) are against relief to U.S. drivers.

These people need drivers in Atoka, Tennessee, and other rural towns, and even smart car drivers, to continue paying ever higher gasoline taxes so that they can keep their cushy, subsidized, big-city jobs.

One fifth goes elsewhere? Based on 10 year old stats? C'mon.

[lspt74]

Originally Posted by mike-in-sa

The original post was a joke, wasn't it? Wasn't it?

Yes, I, too, had assumed that deltadart's post was "tongue in cheek".

[deltadart]

Originally Posted by mike-in-sa

The original post was a joke, wasn't it? Wasn't it?

Yes it was a joke! I'm thinking of trading in my Cavalier for a Yukon now. I feel so guilty about saving soooo much fuel. Also selling my 76mpg Hyosung scooter.

[vwW12]

Originally Posted by MsJoanne

One fifth goes elsewhere? Based on 10 year old stats? C'mon.

Actually, per the U.S. Department of Transportation, May 21, 2008: 37% of gasoline taxes are not used for roads, bridges, highways, etc. Easy:

First, 16% of gasoline taxes go directly into mass transport projects

Second, of the remaining 84% that in theory is for roads, 25% is "flex funds" which are diverted from construction, reconstruction, and improvement of highways and bridges and into "transit projects" and "other projects". Net/net, 21% is "flexed" into pork.

Add 16% direct pork plus 21% "flex" pork, and there you have 37% in subsidies to mass transportation paid by car drivers, including drivers from Altoona, Kansas.

Source: VA Transit - view as html







Edit Jul 21: 21%+16%=37%. Fixed my math.

[SuperGeek]

Originally Posted by MsJoanne

"Big Oil" is an idiotic name? What would you call $24 Billion dollars in profit in ONE quarter of 2008? And that was Shell and ExxonMobil alone. Again, $24BLLION for a single quarter in PROFITS for TWO companies. What might you call it? Your friendly neighborhood rapist? Ok, that works for me.

24 billion dollars is a lot of money, yes, and I thought the same until I thought of it from a different angle: their revenue for the same time period was around 200 billion making that amount of profit about a 10% margin. Run a business with less than 10% margin and see how well you weather an economy like our current one. That's one month's operations in profit, not a 50 year windfall. Complaining about this is like complaining that your neighbor still has a month's living expenses in the bank.

Fact is, "big oil" is so big because we made them that way. They had a product, we bought it, and now we complain about it. Welcome to America. I love this country.

[SuperGeek]

Originally Posted by vwW12

First, 16% of gasoline taxes go directly into mass transport projects
...
Add 16% direct pork plus 21% "flex" pork, and there you have 41% in subsidies to mass transportation paid by car drivers, including drivers from Altoona, Kansas.

So, I'm paying a few cents per gallon to keep a couple million cars off the roads, reduce pollution and make sure traffic flows freely? I don't consider that pork, personally. I've got bigger things to complain about, but then again I don't drive enough that the tax really impacts me. A truck driver hauling steel all day long, maybe it would impact him. But I don't know how much... depends how much they raise taxes.

[vwW12]

Originally Posted by SuperGeek

So, I'm paying a few cents per gallon to keep a couple million cars off the roads, reduce pollution and make sure traffic flows freely?

Actually, mass transit increases pollution and I'd love to know where does traffic flow freely thanks to mass transit.

Yes, it is counter-intuitive, but subsidized mass transit is by definition sub-utilized i.e., you have semi-empty or empty buses and trains running around all day and night and stopping every few blocks and blocking traffic. The average bus carries 9 people, yet weighs untold tons and has a comparatively large engine.

Traffic only flows freely when nice, broad highways are built. But smart car friendly and safe new highways cannot be built when "highway trust fund" monies are being diverted to pork.

[mdfortwoguy]

Originally Posted by Robbie51

just like gm took away all the electric trolleys and replaced them with gas guzzling buses.

You are aware that there are still cities out there like Dayton, Ohio, which still use electric trolley buses... right?