O/T: It's Amusing

Lew Hodgett · 2009-05-09T02:22:58+00:00

Sitting in a traffic jam recently, decided surf the AM radio dial.Found a station carrying a discussion regarding a proposal to offer a tax incentive to people to turn in older gas guzzling vehicles toward the purchase of higher efficiency equipment.It soon became clear that those discussing the idea were mocking the idea in every way possible.I found it amusing to say the least since a few years ago, Union Oil here in SoCal had a program that involved buying junker cars to get them off the road and thus reduce air pollution and earn Union pollution tax credits.It was cheaper to buy the junkers and use the pollution tax credits to offset refinery pollution taxes rather than buy and install the necessary refinery pollution control equipment.Nothing new about the idea, been around a long time and it works.Using taxation policy to influence private sector behavior is one of the basic functions of gov't, isn't it?Lew