• @bleepingblorp
    link
    32 years ago

    This assumes people have an alternative way to get around, whereas in most of the US a car is the only available means.

    I live in the suburbs of a major city and there are no bus stations in my entire township. Only a single digit number of cities even have subway systems. A lot of people are forced by the way the US built transportation infrastructure to drive, often long distances.

    Not only that, but due to this infrastructure setup, logistics also relies heavily on trucking as opposed to air, rail, and water. This means that as gasoline prices rise, so will the cost of absolutely every other material thing that gets shipped. Food, clothing, construction materials (including for things like homes), basically name any physical thing and the price will rise. That also means the prices of services will increase too since many services still use physical objects which must be shipped. Monthly subscriptions will increase prices, government fees will increase, taxes will increase (even without a separate oil or gasoline tax or carbon tax or whatever you want to call it), the cost of deliveries (an absolute necessity for the elderly and disabled, or those who are quarantined), bus fees, taxi fees, carpool fees, every single thing.

    And this won’t hurt the rich. Millionaires will still be millionaires. Billionaires will still be billionaires. And those in the oil and gas industry will just get fatter from this proposal. Exxon would also support increasing prices.

    Meanwhile, people who are on the edge might fall off the cliff, and working class people will suffer. There will be more child hunger and malnutrition. There will be more people unable to even get to work.

    The solution does not reside with increasing the burdens on the poor.