Comment 99257

By Whole Story (anonymous) | Posted March 27, 2014 at 15:24:05 in reply to Comment 99252

I suspect that your analysis is overly simplistic. I am talking about the interplay between taxes, autos, and overall benefits. Are you saying that auto use is not a NET benefit to society? If it isn't you are correct. If it is, we need to see if the net benefit (taxes paid included) outweighs the deficits.

So if the government takes in $100.00 and the true cost (including societal costs) of auto transport is 50, and 90 is raised directly and indirectly from drivers, they are paying $45 of the 50. There would therefore be a subsidy not considering other components of the overall function. However, taxes are only one part of the function. If the income generated to produce the the taxes is dependent upon driving, we need to look at what that is.

Say that without auto transportation, gross national product is half of what it could be. Then your tax revenue is 50 and your expenses are 50 (assuming that other expenses stay the same) and there no net benefit. But if gross national product is 25% of what it could be then you will run deficits without auto transportation. IOW, transportation is necessary to "subsidize" other public goods.

This of course is an over-simplification. You can play with the numbers. The point is that arienc(registered)'s comment begs the question I begged, "could you imagine a country as large and diverse as Canada without roads or the auto industry?"

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