you are absolutely right mauro, i didn't think it through. it is unfortunate that the higher the price of petrol the higher the profit margin. can you think of some way to tax the oil profits without passing it on to the poor, or put a cap on profits? what if gas were rationed and those poor who use little or none of their ration could sell their credits at a high price to the wealthy? maybe other oil countries like venezuela could reduce the price for the poor. jlm
That would be an excessive burden on the poor. It is possible for a very poor person to live without having any loans or credit cards, with no interest debt whatsoever. But everyone uses energy to heat and cool their homes, even if only with a space heater and a window fan. And if the energy tax is levied only against industry, industry would of course pass it more or less directly on to the consumer. Wealthy and middle-class consumers wouldn't much care because they can afford the higher prices, or they might care but would pay the higher prices anyway -- look at how gasoline consumption has not been hurt by skyrocketing gas prices. So the people who don't have any economic cushion would end up paying more for the goods they buy. That's a good formula for making the poor even poorer. That's why I'm also not a big fan of Dan Minette's plan to raise gasoline taxes by 50 cents per gallon every year for the next 10 years, unless there was some offset in place for the working poor. People below certain income levels can qualify for programs like food stamps -- maybe they can qualify for a card that they could swipe at the pump that would automatically eliminate some of the taxes. Then I might go for Dan's plan. Of course, a black market for such cards would immediately spring up, and it would be extremely difficult to police. Also, by letting some people not pay the taxes you end up offsetting some of the environmental benefit of the tax. Just a few thoughts. I'm re-lurking again now. -- Mauro Diotallevi ____________________________________________________________________________________ 8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time with the Yahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#news _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
