The Persistence of Vision
It is simply wonderful to walk down the street on a warm summer day and see the world going on like everything is normal.
Back in 1996 presidential hopeful Bob Dole proposed repealing a 1993 $0.043/gallon gasoline tax. I wrote a letter to the editor back then in opposition, and I found it now:
******
Is Dole a banana?Republican presidential candidate, Bob Dole, wants to repeal the 1993, 4.3 cents gasoline tax increase to help reduce gasoline prices. Why should we reduce any tax when our national budget remains unbalanced? And why should we not pay high taxes on gasoline?
Where is there a more just cause for taxation than on the consumption of oil: a now largely imported, limited, and entirely nonrenewable energy resource? I believe that even a 100% tax rate would not be unreasonable on a fuel that future generations won't likely have available.
The oil industry has given us nearly everything we could desire: an apparently vast and inexpensive fuel that gives power and freedom to the masses of humanity! If they are using the current low ready reserves as an opportunity for extra profits, I say "Good for them!" They deserve it.
I don't even care about the DFL party's "regressive-tax" lament in defense of the poor. We can direct more tax money into mass-transit systems, encourage bicycling, and support the development of simpler, smaller, lighter, and less powerful personal vehicles with smaller energy demands. These will help the poor infinitely more than cheap gas!
Gasoline taxes promote an economy of conservation. Excessively low gas prices promote an economy that is becoming ever more dependent upon a fuel that will be continually more costly to produce! The current temporary price increase is a mere speed bump. There are mountains ahead.
*****
Of course I knew defending a 4.3 cent tax was just as symbolic as Dole's proposal. It is amazing oil prices have since risen by a factor of 2-6 depending on how you want to count it, yet the economy keeps rolling along. Of course I'm not saying people are not struggling now.
It's just crazy that the republicans can deny tax increases for hurting the economy, meanwhile allowing our energy imports keep increasing year after year and now we're more dependent than ever on record high prices.
Now those (price) "mountains" I envisioned I believe are still in the distance, and our $75/bbl oil are merely the foothills preceeding the real peaks.
So I can sit back on a warm summer afternoon, and think all is normal, at $3/gallon gasoline, and we can have a "softlanding" onto a future where finally we'll do everything we need to do, and could have done in the past, except for being too busy.
How do you know WHEN to prepare for the winter except for watching the seasons and calendar? But in the warm days of summer, memories of winter seem far away, and there's plenty of time tomorrow to get busy.
I accept this vision in my own decisions, on warm summer days, wanting to enjoy them while they're here. AND perhaps there's not that much we can really do to prepare.
My personal life has perhaps four special decisions: (1) Paying 2.6x my mortgage payments while I can, (2) Not having a car now for 18 months, (3) Having a vegetable garden now for the 12 years, (4) Not having children or dependents.
I only mean I'm overall more able to prepare than most, whatever prices do. However I don't know how much I can do to help others reduce their cost of living when things get harder.
Finally back to my summer day view, seeming normal and life goes on. I suppose even in the great depression, people still saw the sun and felt the warmth, and appreciated, but they also were busy worrying about how they'd get food for their family and pay their mortgages.
Besides getting out of debt I don't have any clear second best decisions for people who want some small security. Sure, find a way to live on less money, but it all comes down to time and opportunity. We live in a time of great opportunity, so we don't have time to save money.
This will change, even if vision is slow.
Back in 1996 presidential hopeful Bob Dole proposed repealing a 1993 $0.043/gallon gasoline tax. I wrote a letter to the editor back then in opposition, and I found it now:
******
Is Dole a banana?Republican presidential candidate, Bob Dole, wants to repeal the 1993, 4.3 cents gasoline tax increase to help reduce gasoline prices. Why should we reduce any tax when our national budget remains unbalanced? And why should we not pay high taxes on gasoline?
Where is there a more just cause for taxation than on the consumption of oil: a now largely imported, limited, and entirely nonrenewable energy resource? I believe that even a 100% tax rate would not be unreasonable on a fuel that future generations won't likely have available.
The oil industry has given us nearly everything we could desire: an apparently vast and inexpensive fuel that gives power and freedom to the masses of humanity! If they are using the current low ready reserves as an opportunity for extra profits, I say "Good for them!" They deserve it.
I don't even care about the DFL party's "regressive-tax" lament in defense of the poor. We can direct more tax money into mass-transit systems, encourage bicycling, and support the development of simpler, smaller, lighter, and less powerful personal vehicles with smaller energy demands. These will help the poor infinitely more than cheap gas!
Gasoline taxes promote an economy of conservation. Excessively low gas prices promote an economy that is becoming ever more dependent upon a fuel that will be continually more costly to produce! The current temporary price increase is a mere speed bump. There are mountains ahead.
*****
Of course I knew defending a 4.3 cent tax was just as symbolic as Dole's proposal. It is amazing oil prices have since risen by a factor of 2-6 depending on how you want to count it, yet the economy keeps rolling along. Of course I'm not saying people are not struggling now.
It's just crazy that the republicans can deny tax increases for hurting the economy, meanwhile allowing our energy imports keep increasing year after year and now we're more dependent than ever on record high prices.
Now those (price) "mountains" I envisioned I believe are still in the distance, and our $75/bbl oil are merely the foothills preceeding the real peaks.
So I can sit back on a warm summer afternoon, and think all is normal, at $3/gallon gasoline, and we can have a "softlanding" onto a future where finally we'll do everything we need to do, and could have done in the past, except for being too busy.
How do you know WHEN to prepare for the winter except for watching the seasons and calendar? But in the warm days of summer, memories of winter seem far away, and there's plenty of time tomorrow to get busy.
I accept this vision in my own decisions, on warm summer days, wanting to enjoy them while they're here. AND perhaps there's not that much we can really do to prepare.
My personal life has perhaps four special decisions: (1) Paying 2.6x my mortgage payments while I can, (2) Not having a car now for 18 months, (3) Having a vegetable garden now for the 12 years, (4) Not having children or dependents.
I only mean I'm overall more able to prepare than most, whatever prices do. However I don't know how much I can do to help others reduce their cost of living when things get harder.
Finally back to my summer day view, seeming normal and life goes on. I suppose even in the great depression, people still saw the sun and felt the warmth, and appreciated, but they also were busy worrying about how they'd get food for their family and pay their mortgages.
Besides getting out of debt I don't have any clear second best decisions for people who want some small security. Sure, find a way to live on less money, but it all comes down to time and opportunity. We live in a time of great opportunity, so we don't have time to save money.
This will change, even if vision is slow.
posted by Ares Olympus at 3:11 PM
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