The Observation Deck

It's stuff like this that will ensure that by the time we realize the seriousness of some of our problems and get around to fixing things, it will be way too late.

NYC Mayor Loses Big on Traffic Fee Plan

I'm guessing that the N.Y. assemblymen who would not back Bloomberg's initiative have a back-up plan of their own. They are going to ask nicely, and say pretty please. That's sure to work.

I've posted about gas taxes before on this forum, saying it's the ONLY WAY to discourage wasteful gasoline consumption. And that it will never happen. And that the result will not be pretty.

This does not bode well and I find it very discouraging.

We are all very fortunate the 9/11 terrorists did not simply take out four bridges or tunnels leading into manhatten. That would have been far more demoralizing. and killed far fewer people. Maybe not any. All knocking out the trade towers did was make people angry enough to do whatever a few guys at the top told them too.

Although Deterrence is not an obstacle to stateless suicide bombers, we can be secure in the truth that Al Queda is kind of dumb. Unless they're just using the Rope-a-dope, like Muhammad Ali and George Washington before them. But we'll never run out of money. our trade surplus partners will keep loaning us more, and we can also keep siphoning off social security funds until Euthanasia becomes a hallmark of individualism.

There are 3 major groups that commute into Manhatten. People who work there and can't afford to live there. People who work there and can afford to live in a much nicer place. and delivery truck drivers.

It is hard to feel empowered and confident in a traffic jam. No matter how great your car is, what kind of coffee is in the 24 ounce disposeable cup, and how pumped up Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck are on the stereo.

It is harder to decrease motoring than to quit smoking. That has justified great increases in the price of cigarettes. A small decrease in the electricity supply in California enabled Enron to lobby for "privaitization" in just the right way so they could gouge california for electricity.

The commodities traders have figured out how to Enron us all on oil. Commodities trading isn't quite like economic theory. Every barrel of oil is on the entire market. It isn't like buying Frampton comes alive at a garage sale: you aren't bidding against every other person looking for Frampton Comes Alive at every garage sale.

This may not have an entirely negative consequence. Maybe we'll hit a post peak oil hill instead of a post peak oil wall.

trying to rationalize fuel consumption with taxes and public education is less acceptable than letting the oil companies and commodities traders run rampant. And they can use their higher income to pay guys like Grover Norquist to lobby for lower taxes. The federal government should ideally just be a collection agency for Halliburton, and the military a property management contractor for the top oil firms.

Tim Liston wrote:I've posted about gas taxes before on this forum, saying it's the ONLY WAY to discourage wasteful gasoline consumption. And that it will never happen. And that the result will not be pretty.

This does not bode well and I find it very discouraging.

Gasoline should be $6 a gallon. (There goes my political career!)

Thirty years ago a barrel of oil cost about $90 or so a barrel in today's dollars. If oil was taxed to keep the real price at that $90 level:

1. A trillion dollars sent to oil producing countries would have remained here.

2. We would have stronger and wealthier cities.

3. The economy would have adapted easily.

and more.

But it's never going to happen.

We live in a country were 10% annual housing appreciation is seen as a crisis for homeowners and cheap gasoline is a constitutional right.