Full Version: Tax Incentives for a Better World
Spurred on by not just Bush's "we're addicted to oil" comments and by some of the comments I have read here and abroad I have heard lots of ideas on what should be done and how it should be done.
New refineries in America--we have one here in AZ that can't seem to get out of the permits stage.
Government enforcement programs to force companies into complying or face prison terms
Back to Nature luddism--(guys the 60s are dead and gone
)
recently the website Since Sliced Bread offered cash prizes for ideas that Democrats could use. the goal being new and revolutionary ideas from the people.
Myself I prefer the X-Prize method--appeal to greed and self interest. Lots of publicity and hype. offer money.
My idea is that the first company to come up with a family vehicle that can get 100 MPG along with standard setting emissions and has a style people would find attractiveand prices families can afford will get 5 years of no taxes on every one of those vehicles they can sell.
The catch's are of course NO MPG below 100 MPG with above average emissions and it must be in a form that is appealing and would be a popular buy by Americans--No runty little Priuses.
Is this an approach that would be acceptable to the Auto manufacturers and the Government?
Would the loss of revenues from the taxes on these vehicles be worth the major increase in fuel economy?
Is the tax break idea on such a scale feasible?
Would you support ideas like this to achieve the goals that are needed to maintain a healthy America and global environment, or stand against using tax breaks on a large scale to achieve these goals?
New refineries in America--we have one here in AZ that can't seem to get out of the permits stage.
Government enforcement programs to force companies into complying or face prison terms
Back to Nature luddism--(guys the 60s are dead and gone
) recently the website Since Sliced Bread offered cash prizes for ideas that Democrats could use. the goal being new and revolutionary ideas from the people.
Myself I prefer the X-Prize method--appeal to greed and self interest. Lots of publicity and hype. offer money.
My idea is that the first company to come up with a family vehicle that can get 100 MPG along with standard setting emissions and has a style people would find attractiveand prices families can afford will get 5 years of no taxes on every one of those vehicles they can sell.
The catch's are of course NO MPG below 100 MPG with above average emissions and it must be in a form that is appealing and would be a popular buy by Americans--No runty little Priuses.
Is this an approach that would be acceptable to the Auto manufacturers and the Government?
Would the loss of revenues from the taxes on these vehicles be worth the major increase in fuel economy?
Is the tax break idea on such a scale feasible?
Would you support ideas like this to achieve the goals that are needed to maintain a healthy America and global environment, or stand against using tax breaks on a large scale to achieve these goals?
QUOTE
My idea is that the first company to come up with a family vehicle that can get 100 MPG along with standard setting emissions and has a style people would find attractiveand prices families can afford will get 5 years of no taxes on every one of those vehicles they can sell.
This is no doubt the ‘holy grail” for the auto industry. And I don’t think that you need to give them the tax breaks. The first company that could do this would have so much money they would not need any “tax breaks”. The problem of course is that getting to this is currently not possible (or we would have it). Add to that the fact that many auto companies are losing billions and you can understand the problem.
IMO what we need is for government to heavily invest in energy research (Bush mentioned this) and give the technologies to our auto manufacturers, and at the same time, offer folks BIG subsidies to buy more efficient vehicles in order to get the cost of the technologies and parts required for efficient cars down in price.
Unless we do this strapped auto companies are just trying to keep up with the Japanese.
QUOTE
My idea is that the first company to come up with a family vehicle that can get 100 MPG along with standard setting emissions and has a style people would find attractiveand prices families can afford will get 5 years of no taxes on every one of those vehicles they can sell.
Do you really think that any auto company that could come up with such a product would really need the tax incentive to produce it? The rub, of course, is in the style and price thresholds, which render such a car infeasible. It is consumer demand, and the physical and economic limitations those impose, that prevent such a car from being produced...not the fear of paying taxes on all the money they would make.
Your idea encourages the development of a product, but does not ensure that the product would have a sufficient customer base. I think that it would be better to give the incentives to the consumers rather than the companies. The companies will respond to the shift in demand when they make a vehicle that the public wants.
For the purpose of improving MPG, I suggest first finding the average MPG of each model year for all available vehicles. Impose an excise tax on vehicles rated below this average, and an excise tax credit on all those rated more than double. Adjust the tax rates annually so that the credits are offset by the tax. This adjustment would have the effect of increasing the tax credit when high-consumption vehicles are more popular.
As an example, if the average for a particular year is 30mpg, then any vehicle under 30 would get taxed, and those over 60 would get the credit.
For the purpose of improving MPG, I suggest first finding the average MPG of each model year for all available vehicles. Impose an excise tax on vehicles rated below this average, and an excise tax credit on all those rated more than double. Adjust the tax rates annually so that the credits are offset by the tax. This adjustment would have the effect of increasing the tax credit when high-consumption vehicles are more popular.
As an example, if the average for a particular year is 30mpg, then any vehicle under 30 would get taxed, and those over 60 would get the credit.
QUOTE(Hobbes @ Feb 2 2006, 01:33 PM)
Do you really think that any auto company that could come up with such a product would really need the tax incentive to produce it?
"It just doesn't make environmental or economic sense to try to put an expensive dual-powertrain system into less expensive cars which already get good mileage."Robert Lutz, General Motors Vice Chairman of Product Development
"You just lost a billion dollars in three months. You don't have any economic sense."
Bill Maher, Comedian
Yes, I really do think an incentive is needed.
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