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SUVs should be heavily taxed
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Anonymous
It actually was an idiot response to an idiot post. Because this sap watches a few Prius drivers on her commute from NWDC, she thinks she's got a valid argument with valid data. She's an idiot. Of course she sees the road better. She's eight feet up. Her solution is for everyone to drive an SUV. Hey idiot, your view of the road all of a sudden goes away if everyone is eight feet up like you! You might not have thought about that because your math training stopped with elementary algebra. But it's true! If everyone is standing on the same step, you just lost your high perch! Idiots. |
Anonymous
It actually was an idiot response to an idiot post. Because this sap watches a few Prius drivers on her commute from NWDC, she thinks she's got a valid argument with valid data. She's an idiot. Of course she sees the road better. She's eight feet up. Her solution is for everyone to drive an SUV. Hey idiot, your view of the road all of a sudden goes away if everyone is eight feet up like you! You might not have thought about that because your math training stopped with elementary algebra. But it's true! If everyone is standing on the same step, you just lost your high perch! Idiots. |
Anonymous
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Oh shut up and move to China.
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Anonymous
bit of a non-sequitur, no? |
Anonymous
The difference is that minivans are built on car platforms, so they feel more like a car to drive than an SUV. I got an Odyssey to replace a Toyota Avalon, and it doesn't feel like I'm driving anything that's bigger, although the back-up camera and sliding doors make it much more convenient. But I do wonder about the SUV haters and whether minivans should also be hated. I don't know how gas mileage compares, but I'm going to guess that the minivan is probably closer to an SUV than to a regular-sized 4 door sedan. |
Anonymous
The gas mileage is similar (and pretty bad). But that's not it as much as the fact I just prefer smaller cars. I've had Civic-sized cars my whole life, until now that is. I got a CRV a few years ago and really love it, but it still feels too big. Parallel parking isn't fun. And part of safety, to me at least, is being comfortable with what you drive. |
Anonymous
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You're made for politics.
I mean that in a snarky way. Whatever. The fact remains that I have taken extensive steps to make my home more energy efficient in the past few years, have instituted a program at work that has measurably reduced energy consumption and have done every other thing I can think of to reduce my carbon footprint/pollute less. And yet I have to listen to a friend of a friend's comments about my RAV-4 when this friend has to my knowledge in the last 12 months gone on 2 trips with her husband and kids to South America on "eco tours" including hiking through on very fragile eco-system, and the carbon emissions on those unnecessary plane trips alone must offset whatever else she is doing. Plus she lives in an old house with old windows that I guarantee are not well insulated, and should probably have spent her travel money on upgrading her windows. My point is that fixating on a single thing like SUVs is silly. I think that is what is political -- to focus on something symbolic that is ultimately not a big deal, like worrying about gay marriage destroying the fabric of family life instead of worrying about things like the effect on family life of no/inadequate healthcare, childcare, education etc. I drive a RAV-4 because sometimes, I need to drive extra people around and I need that third row seat. Like in the summers, I pick my kids and my neighbor's kids up from camp because we all work and share pickup duties because it is hard for any of us to get to the camp by pickup time, and this is the best way we know how to manage. If I had my druthers, I'd have a little Civic to commute in as well, but I can't afford three cars -- two commuter vehicles and a "haul people around in" one. It's that or a minivan. The SUV had better gas mileage. |
Anonymous
Whatever. The fact remains that I have taken extensive steps to make my home more energy efficient in the past few years, have instituted a program at work that has measurably reduced energy consumption and have done every other thing I can think of to reduce my carbon footprint/pollute less. And yet I have to listen to a friend of a friend's comments about my RAV-4 when this friend has to my knowledge in the last 12 months gone on 2 trips with her husband and kids to South America on "eco tours" including hiking through on very fragile eco-system, and the carbon emissions on those unnecessary plane trips alone must offset whatever else she is doing. Plus she lives in an old house with old windows that I guarantee are not well insulated, and should probably have spent her travel money on upgrading her windows. My point is that fixating on a single thing like SUVs is silly. I think that is what is political -- to focus on something symbolic that is ultimately not a big deal, like worrying about gay marriage destroying the fabric of family life instead of worrying about things like the effect on family life of no/inadequate healthcare, childcare, education etc. I drive a RAV-4 because sometimes, I need to drive extra people around and I need that third row seat. Like in the summers, I pick my kids and my neighbor's kids up from camp because we all work and share pickup duties because it is hard for any of us to get to the camp by pickup time, and this is the best way we know how to manage. If I had my druthers, I'd have a little Civic to commute in as well, but I can't afford three cars -- two commuter vehicles and a "haul people around in" one. It's that or a minivan. The SUV had better gas mileage. A progressive vehicle tax should be just one of many aspects of a tax system that encourages sustainability. We are not talking about replacing the country's tax systems with "henceforward everyone is taxed by what they drive". We are saying there are increased costs associated with choosing a larger, heavier vehicle. And some of those costs are passed on to the taxpayers because of the impacts SUVs have on the roads. Just because this particular thread is about SUV taxes doesn't mean we shouldn't also think about the other ways we can help the environment. Anecdotally comparing yourself to your friend or giving us reasons why you choose a RAV is pointless. You really sound like you are just defensive about your RAV. |
Anonymous
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I also thought OP should move to China.
OP, "you just have that Prius aura...." Let me spell it out for you: NOT meant as a compliment, but rather holier than thou. Oh, if we could all be you.......on second thought, no thanks. |
Anonymous
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Who is acting holier than thou? I said tax an item. You can buy it or not. You may be a sweetie pie. No one is telling you you're a horrible person. No one is saying not to have kids or to go move to China. I'm saying this consumer good should be taxed because it has sufficient negative externalities as to warrant policies to reduce the number of these vehicles on the road. No one is taking away choice. But choices have costs.
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Anonymous
| I like how everyone jumped all over the OP who said she didn't want her mortgage interest tax deduction taken away, but ask them to pay a tax on their Surburban for all the imposition it creates for other drivers and they start sophomoric chants to move to China. |
Anonymous
I used to live in Chicago and every resident had to pay to have a city sticker. Recently, they changed the sticker policy so that depending on how big your car was, you'd pay more or less accordingly. They should start doing that here. . .I never understood people that drove huge cars in the city anyway. They would be such a pain to park!! |
Anonymous
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"And from what I can see, the only people driving SUVs are middle aged moms, who after dropping off their kids, spend the rest of the day driving their lonely asses from one store to another in a truck sized vehicle. "
Ditto. |
Anonymous
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"I never understood people that drove huge cars in the city anyway. "
Paging Dr. Freud! |
Anonymous
Replacement rate is actually slightly higher than 2 kids per couple. And taxing people for their reproductive choices is profoundly anti-choice, anti-human, anti-freedom, but whatever. |