Austin Phillips
September 24, 2014
Prof. Masanori
Economics
Cons of the gas tax
Many people will argue that the gas tax is good for the American people, but I for one disagree. Being a college student, it is hard enough to make ends meet for tuition, living expenses and paying my personal bills, without the fact that my weekly trip home for weekends will cost more. Considering that I drive over 260 miles on weekends home and back and that I get roughly 20 miles per gallon in my truck, even a tax increase of 25 cents per gallon would increase my weekend expenses by $3.25. This may not seem like much but if I were to go home every weekend in the 16 week semester, I would spend an extra $52. In my four years or 8 semesters of college, that would total $416, which to a penny pinching college student is a substantial amount of money. I believe that the gas tax is bad because the money made is not always used for the reasons it is collected for, it is inefficient to tax the raw product of pollution, and that the gas tax promotes buying more Middle Eastern oil, which oil profits funds Islamic terrorists.
First, I think that the gas tax is bad because the money may not be used for the reasons that it was intended for. The gas tax money is supposed to go into a trust fund for roads to be maintained out of. This trust fund would have sufficient funds to do this if Congress would use this money efficiently, but the fund is running dry because, instead, Congress has repeatedly bestowed spending on non-highway priorities and on intrastate issues. Drivers across America shouldn’t have to pay for projects that House appropriators like.
Secondly, I think that the gas tax is bad because it is inefficient to tax the raw production of pollution rather than other components. It would be way smarter to tax the emissions or the automobile makers that make the vehicles rather than the consumer of the gas. Taxing the gas would only lead consumers to buying more fuel efficient vehicles rather than drive less, which would only hurt the consumer more in the long run.
Finally, I believe that the gas tax is bad because the gas tax promotes buying more Middle Eastern oil, which the profits off of the oil funds Islamic terrorists. As many of you know, we are at war with the terrorist group ISIS. They control many oil refineries and oil derricks in the Middle East and