[ExI] Dollar a gallon gas was Rationality and Irrationality

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

> At 08:09 AM 12/18/2007, Kevin Freels wrote:
>
> snip
>
> >More money needs to be spent on R&D to make these products
> >available. I like where you are going with this though. How about a
> >$1.50 per gallon gas guzzler tax on all passenger vehicles that get
> >less than 30 mpg and use that money to directly fund alternative R&D.
>
### Great Idea!

But, why not get serious, and impose a tax on all homes with more than
100sq.ft per occupant - after all, home heating and cooling puts out
so much carbon dioxide? We all could fit into 1/10th of available
apartment space!

Now, actually, a guzzler tax is too timid - why not impose a 100,000
tax on all cars that carry less than 50 passengers? We would hardly
produce any CO2 if we all traveled in buses only.

And if you are really serious about your beliefs, why not impose a tax
of 1,000,000$ on all new births? After all, each baby born is nothing
but pollution, tons and tons of CO2 generated over her lifetime....

OK, I admit I just can't contain my sarcasm when I read yet another
call to threaten to kill somebody to get what "we" all "need". "More
money needs" to be spent on your favorite project - hey, let's take a
gun, stand by the gas pump and squeeze some jerks you hate for 1.50$
per gallon? You get free cash, and a feeling of moral superiority to
boot.

I prefer to get my feeling of moral superiority from saying "No to
violence". "If you want something done, do it yourself, don't force
others to do it". "You have no right to attack somebody unless he
first provably and indisputably attacks you". Etc, etc.

Maybe somebody will listen.

Rafal