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Thursday, October 07, 2010

Lemons, Mileage, Stadiums, and Snacks

Lemon Socialism
Although it appears that the TARP bank bailout program will cost much, much less than forecast ($50 billion instead of $350 billion), the financial reform bill left a big opening for the government to do more bailouts.

Tax Miles, Not Fuel
New fuel economy rules mean less money for road upkeep even as Americans can drive further on a tank of gas.  It's time to tax miles driven rather than fuel.

New Twins Stadium Providing Some Returns for Taxpayers
Although far less than the amount taxpayers are putting in to pay off their $350 million contribution to the stadium, the sales tax instituted to help pay for the stadium is also going to help libraries and youth sports.  Apparently, Hennepin County was more clever than most stadium hosts.  Too bad they didn't spend the entire stadium budget on those programs...

"Snacklash"
How do you know Americans are petty?  When they complain about a compostable chip bag because it is too loud.  "Haven't they ever had chips while watching TV?"  Sun Chips maker Frito Lay will now only have the original flavor in the compostable bag, with the rest going back to the non-biodegradable variety. 

Dear whiny snackers, haven't you ever heard of a bowl?

2 comments:

Slummy said...

Uh...putting the chips in a bowl controls serving size! Solving two problems at once just doesn't make sense... ;-)

rick said...

This mileage tax idea is interesting.

How would a mileage tax be different from most other taxes we pay?

What if the mileage counting device breaks? What if it isn't my fault? What if I claim it isn't my fault? What if my neighbor keeps sabotaging my tracking device because I never mow my lawn?

Why haven't we already instituted this system by taxing miles driven based on the odometer when you get your license tabs? How much would people cheat if we did this?

You might say it's naive to think people wouldn't cheat using an odometer based system.

You might also say it's naive to think that the system that would actually be implemented, which would probably vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, would not also be easily compromised in short order.

Are we going to hire DMV auditors to make sure mileage tax is computed correctly? Is this what people felt like when the income tax was first introduced?