Mr. Pebble
09-29-2005, 04:48 PM
Charging more for truckers plates and lowering it for diesel consumers would still be robbing Peter to save Paul. Look in the history books. The U.S. has strict Maritime Laws so everyone registers their ships in Panama where the laws are very lax. We lose a lot of control and a ton of tax money as a result. Most corporations, including GM, are registered in Delaware because they have the most lenient corporate laws. Delaware collects a ton of tax money and every other state loses out.
Take Natural Gas. Save the momentary spikes, the price of natural Gas on the Commodities Markets never rose above one dollar per MMBTU's. That was until the year 2000. Over two years ago, I heard a comment on CNBC that, for the first time, consumption of NG exceeded recovery. I immediately told people to invest in NG related companies and months later it peaked at $5 per MMBTU's. Earlier this year it had passed $14 and now we can expect huge increases in the cost of heating our homes this winter.
What happened? Besides the normal increase in consumption, power companies found it was cheaper to convert from coal to NG to meet emissions requirements as opposed to purchasing expensive to buy and maintain pollution control equipment. With a power plant consuming more NG than the entire community that it serves, there was a quantum leap in consumption. Now the shortages are critical and the costs, passed on to consumers, far exceed the cost of pollution control equipment for those plants. This is another example of "Crate and Shift" thinking.
But wait! It gets worse. Because we can not pump enough NG to meet our needs, we will have to start importing it in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas. This is catastrophic in two ways. One, LNG is so explosively dangerous that on the Gulf Coast, the ships will be unloaded 26 miles offshore, as close as they can safely come. It is going to be a lot worse on the West Coast where the waters are not so shallow and the ships will be dangerously close to shore when the unload. The other way is that we will be importing a huge amount of LNG which will greatly increase our trade deficit. It is just a matter of time before foreign countries get sick and tired of financing American excesses and cut us off. Our inability to import oil, LNG, machine tools and consumer goods is going to cause a catastrophic inflation rate and bring us dangerously close to Soylent Green.
Now look at charging trucks more for license plates. As noted above, look at the license plates on most OTR trucks. Most are registered in Maine and Texas where trucking laws and fees are more lenient. Michigan and other states get nothing and the only way to pay for the roads is the fuel tax. If we reduce axle weight or raise the fees for trucks, it will increase costs and that will be passed on in the form of higher shipping charges which will be passed on to the end user (that's you) who ultimately must pay all costs. Just like heating your home, you will pay one way or the other but some ways are much cheaper. Also trucks will fill up in Indiana and Ohio and pay no tax at all. A few states (I believe Arkansas is one) require truckers to buy fuel within the state before leaving and State Police prowl the state line to check up on vehicles leaving the state. Just about any truck can get from Toledo or South Bend to Saginaw or Muskegon or below where most freight goes and return without filling up and therefore pay no taxes at all to Michigan.
So, the question is, just how bad do we want to punish ourselves by coming up with ever more creative ways to "Crate and Shift." And besides, passenger diesel owners need a kick, too and, like the cigarette tax, those who have gasoline powered cars would rather stick it to you than pay themselves. Are you a non-smoker that loves to see that tax on cigarettes? If you are, don't get mad when you are it and others cheer the thought of sticking it to you.
I can show you just as much waste in government than at GM and Ford. That's where the problem is. Think about is as you go down the highway, saving fuel and blowing soot into the air as diesels do. I have bad habits, too, but when the brain-dead liberals get into my face about wasting resources, I whip out my American Flag, wave it in their faces and reserve my American right to lavish in conspicuous misconsumption without conscience.
By the way, as an economist and engineer, my solution to resource conservation is to start taxing resources when they come out of the ground or are cut down. A dollar per board foot or $50 per barrel would have us all conserving like crazy and make recycling so profitable that we wouldn't have to use tax money to stop us from borrowing against our grandchildren's future. It's a great idea but try selling it to a narrow-minded and arrogant rich Republican or a brain dead liberal who couldn't hold a job if the taxpayers weren't willing to ante up.
Take that, all of you. Isn't Democracy wonderful!!!!
Have a nice day.
Mr. Pebble
Take Natural Gas. Save the momentary spikes, the price of natural Gas on the Commodities Markets never rose above one dollar per MMBTU's. That was until the year 2000. Over two years ago, I heard a comment on CNBC that, for the first time, consumption of NG exceeded recovery. I immediately told people to invest in NG related companies and months later it peaked at $5 per MMBTU's. Earlier this year it had passed $14 and now we can expect huge increases in the cost of heating our homes this winter.
What happened? Besides the normal increase in consumption, power companies found it was cheaper to convert from coal to NG to meet emissions requirements as opposed to purchasing expensive to buy and maintain pollution control equipment. With a power plant consuming more NG than the entire community that it serves, there was a quantum leap in consumption. Now the shortages are critical and the costs, passed on to consumers, far exceed the cost of pollution control equipment for those plants. This is another example of "Crate and Shift" thinking.
But wait! It gets worse. Because we can not pump enough NG to meet our needs, we will have to start importing it in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas. This is catastrophic in two ways. One, LNG is so explosively dangerous that on the Gulf Coast, the ships will be unloaded 26 miles offshore, as close as they can safely come. It is going to be a lot worse on the West Coast where the waters are not so shallow and the ships will be dangerously close to shore when the unload. The other way is that we will be importing a huge amount of LNG which will greatly increase our trade deficit. It is just a matter of time before foreign countries get sick and tired of financing American excesses and cut us off. Our inability to import oil, LNG, machine tools and consumer goods is going to cause a catastrophic inflation rate and bring us dangerously close to Soylent Green.
Now look at charging trucks more for license plates. As noted above, look at the license plates on most OTR trucks. Most are registered in Maine and Texas where trucking laws and fees are more lenient. Michigan and other states get nothing and the only way to pay for the roads is the fuel tax. If we reduce axle weight or raise the fees for trucks, it will increase costs and that will be passed on in the form of higher shipping charges which will be passed on to the end user (that's you) who ultimately must pay all costs. Just like heating your home, you will pay one way or the other but some ways are much cheaper. Also trucks will fill up in Indiana and Ohio and pay no tax at all. A few states (I believe Arkansas is one) require truckers to buy fuel within the state before leaving and State Police prowl the state line to check up on vehicles leaving the state. Just about any truck can get from Toledo or South Bend to Saginaw or Muskegon or below where most freight goes and return without filling up and therefore pay no taxes at all to Michigan.
So, the question is, just how bad do we want to punish ourselves by coming up with ever more creative ways to "Crate and Shift." And besides, passenger diesel owners need a kick, too and, like the cigarette tax, those who have gasoline powered cars would rather stick it to you than pay themselves. Are you a non-smoker that loves to see that tax on cigarettes? If you are, don't get mad when you are it and others cheer the thought of sticking it to you.
I can show you just as much waste in government than at GM and Ford. That's where the problem is. Think about is as you go down the highway, saving fuel and blowing soot into the air as diesels do. I have bad habits, too, but when the brain-dead liberals get into my face about wasting resources, I whip out my American Flag, wave it in their faces and reserve my American right to lavish in conspicuous misconsumption without conscience.
By the way, as an economist and engineer, my solution to resource conservation is to start taxing resources when they come out of the ground or are cut down. A dollar per board foot or $50 per barrel would have us all conserving like crazy and make recycling so profitable that we wouldn't have to use tax money to stop us from borrowing against our grandchildren's future. It's a great idea but try selling it to a narrow-minded and arrogant rich Republican or a brain dead liberal who couldn't hold a job if the taxpayers weren't willing to ante up.
Take that, all of you. Isn't Democracy wonderful!!!!
Have a nice day.
Mr. Pebble