Ok, so Tom Friedman says we’re living next to a rumbling volcano (the Middle East) and we need to move our house away from it before it blows. Sounds like an existential threat, right? I mean, if the volcano blows and our house (the old US of A) is destroyed we’ll all be screwed. All of us. Every single one.
According to Friedman we need to act now to break our addiction to Middle East oil before the region explodes and we are left with a serious case of the DT’s.
So what is Tom’s brilliant fix? How’re we gonna move the national house? On the backs of the working classes apparently.
But, this isn’t only about getting us off our oil addiction. No, no, Tom’s plan is much much bigger. He’s gonna make it a two-fer. He’s also gonna solve our deficit problem too!
How are we gonna do all this you ask? What’s the magical plan? A $1 a gallon national gas tax! I told you it was brilliant. We’ll reduce our dependence on foreign oil AND use the extra revenue to reduce the national debt!
The thinking is that if the government tells all the struggling lower and middle class folks that there’s gonna be a massively regressive tax instituted starting a year from now they will all run out and buy new fuel efficient vehicles so they can avoid the tax! That’ll reduce our oil consumption and reduce the fallout from an exploding Middle East. I’ve already started searching the auto ads for the most fuel efficient vehicles. Friedman suggests something like a Chevy Volt. Suggested retail around $40,000.
But….hold on. Wait just a second. I can’t afford a new car. Most of the people I know can’t afford a new car. So that means I, and most of the rest of the working class folks, will be stuck shelling out much more for gas. But Friedman must know that most people, struggling to simply keep their heads above water economically, can’t afford to buy new expensive fuel efficient cars, right? He’s a smart guy. So if most people can’t afford to avoid the new tax that means most of them will wind up paying it and still relying just as much on foreign oil as they do now.
WTF?
Raising revenue to reduce the deficit relies on continued oil consumption and continued oil consumption means we won’t have moved our house away from the rumbling volcano! Friedman’s remedy seems to set his two goals at odds with one another.
Imagine that.
Think someone will tell him?
Why, oh why, if the deficit and our addiction to foreign oil are such existential national threats is it that the solution seems to be to dump the load on the backs of those least in the position to be able to do anything about it? Why are the working classes asked for yet another sacrifice while the wealthiest are spared? When will the “haves” have enough that they will not have to have even more at the expense of those simply struggling not to fall through the cracks? Why can’t the top 5% or even the top 1% be asked to make an exceptional sacrifice TO SAVE THE NATIONAL HOUSE! How ludicrous is it to scream that the house is going to be destroyed and then propose that the best way to save it is to ask the weakest to lift it up and move it away from the threat?
WTF?
Does this guy have no conscience what-so-ever?