Ellington

As someone who leans toward new-urbanism and spends a little time suburb bashing, the story Auto Mobility in this month's Washington Monthly started out a little off-putting. Of course there's no logic to literally subsidizing automobile traffic with tax incentives, is there?

American drivers have taken a number of steps in response to high gas prices. SUV sales, which had already started to slip, plunged further in Katrina's wake while demand for fuel-efficient vehicles like the Toyota Prius soared. But while we can choose to buy hybrids or cut down on trips to the grocery store, the hard truth is that, in a suburbanized country, there is only so much Americans can do to reduce their car usage. To make a living, they have to work. And to get to work, the vast majority of Americans have to drive.

The article's writer makes a point about where jobs are headed -- the suburbs -- and how difficult it is for the poorest workers to get to those jobs if they don't have cars. (Indeed, she notes the poor in New Orleans who couldn't even evacuate because they didn't have cars.) And the rest of us are paying dearly for our daily commute.

My thought -- maybe subsidizing automobiles (through tax incentives) could lead, some day, to mass transit that uses computer-controlled cars (think I, Robot, which I just saw the other night) that are considerably more efficient than what we have now. And, of course, it's always within the government's power to subsidize more *efficient* cars with *better* incentives.

And, who wouldn't want a $3,000 tax credit to cover your car?

Previous Comments

ID

103308

Comment

Uh, isn't there a tax credit for hybrids? Or is that just in California?

Author

kate

Date

2005-10-26T08:30:20-06:00

ID

103309

Comment

Why not just get some federal dollars to subsidize interlocal mass transit lines for SMSAs now? Oh, sorry. That makes too much sense.

Author

Rex

Date

2005-10-26T09:57:27-06:00

ID

103310

Comment

There *was* a Federal tax credit for hybrids, but I'm not sure it's still in effect. There's also a Federal tax credit for Hummers, because they're *over* a certain weight limit. Somebody might want to smack the guy who came up with that one.

Author

Todd Stauffer

Date

2005-10-26T11:21:12-06:00

ID

103311

Comment

There's also a Federal tax credit for Hummers... Ya know... there's a dirty political joke in there somewhere...

Author

Rex

Date

2005-10-26T11:43:28-06:00

ID

103312

Comment

At the same time there are taxes designed to curb purchases of certain vehicles. 10 cylinder cars (the viper) and others (ford F-250's and "duallie" trucks) have to pay a "gas guzzler tax" usually however the people driving those cars do not worry about the tax because they can afford them whether personal or business, But what if they dropped the requirements to consider car's and trucks with v8's? Paying for a hinds county tag is $$$ enough without having to go out of pocket (even more) because of the engine size. It would curb appeal to the people in trucks and suvs that didn't actually need them. and to benefit the people who could acutally prove that they needed a big truck (contractor license etc.) they could get a b-10 tag and a tax break.

Author

*SuperStar*

Date

2005-10-26T15:33:01-06:00

ID

103313

Comment

As someone that loves high performance cars, Iíd thank the government and anyone else to keep their incentives, unless of course theyíre willing to foot the entire cost for whatever they think I should be driving!

Author

K RHODES

Date

2005-10-28T11:39:02-06:00

ID

103314

Comment

Interestingly, the original story that I posted there doesn't harp on incentives for certain type of cars -- the fundamental idea is that we give take credits for commuting costs, since they're not currently deductible by folks as business expenses. (For instance, I could theoretically deduct a trip to OfficeDepot -- or be reimbursed for it and the company take the deduction -- but the same is not true of the trip from my home to office.) The notion is that this would help middle-class folks by giving them another $1-3,000 line-item on their 1040, and it would help poor workers by literally subsidizing their ability to line up a 10-year-old Honda Civic or whatnot in order to get around. I'm not one to subsidize the suburbs, so I wouldn't vote for it tomorrow, but it is food for thought that people who need jobs in Jackson can't get to them if they're past County Line Road or out in the Dogwood festival area if they can't afford a 15-year-old Civic.

Author

Todd Stauffer

Date

2005-10-28T12:47:02-06:00

ID

103315

Comment

as someone with an almost 10 year old honda civic that would be nice.

Author

*SuperStar*

Date

2005-10-28T14:55:20-06:00