As far as France is concerned, the real reason may be more down-to-earth
than a supposed offset of social or environmental costs. Just keep in mind
that, in the French budget, gas taxes account for about 17% of ALL COMBINED
TAX INCOME, or slightly less than income taxes.

If you were an elected decision maker, you had to face re-election sooner or
later, and want to make a spectacular promise without further pushing the
deficit toward unsustainable levels, what would you do ? Reduce gas taxes
that nobody cares about (because nobody REALLY sees the gas tax, but
EVERYBODY needs the gas), or promise a slight income tax reduction that pays
off handsomely at the polls without jeopardizing your bottom line too much ?

Christian

> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]De la
> part de Gates, Scott
> Envoyé : jeudi 28 août 2003 14:40
> À : [log in to unmask]
> Objet : Re: [HP3000-L] OT: [HP3000-L] Gas Price Whining
>
>
> Perhaps the other nations are adding in the tax to counter
> the true social
> cost, beyond simply maintaining roads. Here in America, where
> we have quite
> a lot of room for suburban sprawl.  Building new U.S.
> roads(and parking
> lots, and on ramps, and gas-stations, and all the rest of the
> structures
> that go along with cars) is cheap in comparison to the cost
> of the loss of
> land in Europe which could be put to other use. So, rather
> than pave the
> whole country, they use the tax to maintain existing roads, subsidize
> alternate transportation, and limit the need for new roads by
> discouraging
> excessive car use.  In Europe, passenger rail is heavily
> subsidized. Travel
> by European rail is relatively cheap for the individual. (OK,
> yes they're
> paying it in taxes, but if they're getting a tangible benefit
> back. . . .)
> Here AMTRAK is expensive because it's expected to attempt to
> turn a profit
> and it's subsidy is on the chopping block every year. Yet, no
> one expects
> our ROADS to be profitable.  If they were, tolls for use of the U.S.
> Interstate System from Columbus, Ohio to Orlando, Florida
> could be several
> hundred dollars, making an train ticket to Disney World look
> very appealing.
> It's all a trade off.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wayne R. Boyer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 8:58 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: [HP3000-L] Gas Price Whining
>
>
> In a message dated 8/27/03 1:14:01 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask]
> writes:
>
>
> > We've known for some time that our gasoline is artificially cheap.
>
> I dispute that.  Many other nations simply have far higher
> gas taxes causing
> their resulting total gas prices to be artificially higher
> than ours.  If
> they would stop hurting their citizens with high gas taxes,
> they too would
> have prices like ours - or lower!
>
> Wayne
>
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