# Raise the Gas Tax. A Lot. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 30, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335 "2015-01-30T16:01:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/161 "2015-02-19T03:15:52Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > Dude issues a mea culpa, others were clear on what he meant, and you think that jumping on his precise verbiage is a way to score debate points? Roffles. “Fuck me” isn’t exactly a mea culpa. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/162 "2015-02-19T03:22:46Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > The term ‘slip of the keyboard’ is an idiom, making a play of words on the phrase ‘slip of the tongue’ [look it up], except, as we note, nobody is speaking, and, with a nod to the medium, the word ‘keyboard’ is substituted for ‘tongue’. > > Please show me where I am incorrect. A sum and a percentage are two totally different mathematical concepts. On a board dedicated to fighting ignorance since 1973, I would think that you would know that. Apparently not. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/163 "2015-02-19T14:12:12Z")
Guys, can we move on? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/164 "2015-02-19T22:54:55Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Guys, can we move on? Yeah, right! ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/165 "2015-02-19T22:59:58Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > A sum and a percentage are two totally different mathematical concepts. On a board dedicated to fighting ignorance since 1973, I would think that you would know that. > > Apparently not. :smack: Wow! You’re an intellectual! What power your words have!:rolleyes: Now, if you’ll address my last post in re: your odious behaviour, comments, etc… , and give reasons for your unbecoming behavior, I may stop laughing at you. And don’t use the SDMB, and it’s motto, as a deodorant for your sloppy attempts at trying to appear smarter than anybody when you can’t cut it. At any rate, if you want a right going over, take it to the Pit. There, I shall abuse and master you at my pleasure. I’m through fencing with seconds. (On this thread.) ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/166 "2015-02-19T23:01:58Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Guys, can we move on? \*Now \*we can! ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/167 "2015-02-19T23:49:51Z")
Boy, did this thing get derailed! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/168 "2015-02-19T23:55:05Z")
> [@Daylate](#): > > Boy, did this thing get derailed! Why are we talking about trains in a gas thread? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/169 "2015-02-20T03:03:39Z")
Some local train systems get federal highway money, so we’re not completely derailed. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/170 "2015-02-21T04:50:22Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > And this one of the big problems with wealth inequality in the world… once again it puts hard incentives and difficult choices in front of 99% of the world, while letting the other 1% consume with virtual impunity. Nope. “Inequality” is not the problem. The problem is bizarre taxes on a product only because it is “cheap” and a lot of people are using it. I don’t see why you think that the highest 1% need to be punished, or for what, but, the sorrows of the world are not their fault. Now, if you want to blame the highest 1% of politicians, who get us into inflationary and deadly wars, then we are back into the realm of reality. Inequality is only a problem to the lower strata that think that some statistics are indicative of some measure of worth on their part. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/171 "2015-02-21T04:51:35Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Some local train systems get federal highway money, so we’re not completely derailed. Right. We’re back on track. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/172 "2015-02-21T07:27:59Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I don’t see why you think that the highest 1% need to be punished, or for what, but, the sorrows of the world are not their fault. Some of us don’t see rolling back the highest tax brackets to levels that they were at for some of the most productive economical decades in this country’s history to be a punishment. We call it paying their fair share. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/173 "2015-02-21T20:55:00Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Agreed - I’m in the UK. We pay higher fuel taxes than in the US. However, we drive fewer miles to work, and our food goes fewer miles on the road. It is different. You also drive smaller cars. I’d argue that all those things are at least partially due to higher fuel costs. In other words, it is different, but it doesn’t need to be. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/174 "2015-02-21T22:48:53Z")
One state is planning to revise their decades-old sliding gas taxing formula, based on the retail price, to lower the base rate for the first year and then raise it for the next 2 years. They plan to make up for the loss of revenue in the first year by eliminating 500 DOT employee positions, effective March 1. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/175 "2015-02-22T05:16:29Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > Some of us don’t see rolling back the highest tax brackets to levels that they were at for some of the most productive economical decades in this country’s history to be a punishment. We call it paying their fair share. Some of us see a progressive tax as being punitive and a greater degree of theft from those who are more productive. We call it extortion and theft at the point of the gun (military, IRS, etc…). Not to mention, unfair. More to the point, however- I was noting that **HMS Irruncible** used the word ‘impunity’ which, to me, denotes punishment. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/176 "2015-02-22T07:40:31Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Some of us see a progressive tax as being punitive and a greater degree of theft from those who are more productive. We call it extortion and theft at the point of the gun (military, IRS, etc…). Not to mention, unfair. I’m sure that all those rich people will stop even trying to be rich if we rolled back the tax brackets to how they were for the most successful decades of our country’s history. In fact, there were no rich people when the tax brackets on the highest income earners were higher because they were so disincentivized. And the “taxation is theft” mantra is boring and wrong but by saying it it means that you, like most Libertarians, are so disconnected with the real world (a real world where Libertarianism has never been implemented, ever) that rational discourse is impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335/177 "2015-02-22T13:03:07Z")
Meh I’ve got the money. I’d rather pay the taxes now than when I was making $7-something an hour. I’m not sure paying it through massive gas taxes is the way to do it. But I do like the idea of using gas taxes as a sort of use-tax for roads, as it is currently. If we’re going to keep having the feds pay for the interstate, then I think this tax is a good way to do it. Otherwise just drop it and lets the states figure it out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/711335.md?page=8)