Stupid Ideas

A lot of people are complaining about the <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EARNS_OIL?SITE=MTBIL&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">profits the oil industry</a> is making and have all kinds of solutions as to how to help consumers past this stretch of high gas prices. The stupidest of these I've heard is a $100 fuel-cost rebate for millions of taxpayers and suspending the federal 18.4-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax.<br />n<br />nWhat good is $100 going to do me with gas prices the way they are? One hundred dollars doesn't go very far in the Last Best Place and the distances we travel. It's nothing more than a big joke. How much administrative overhead will there be involved in issuing this money out to people? The Government doesn't do anything cheap so I bet this will cost taxpayers at least twice what they receive to get their own damn money back from the government. Lastly how much fraud will there be since the government is handing out money? Offer money like this and fraud happens, pure and simple. Some criminally minded, enterprising individuals, will find a way to get extra money out of this ill advised scheme, guaranteed. Overall the $100 fuel-cost rebate is an idiotic idea.<br />n<br />nNow on to suspending the 18.4-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax. Another monumentally stupid idea. Consumer usage of gasoline is, for the most part, dependent on the supply and demand equation. If prices drop for gasoline 18.4-cent-per-gallon all of a sudden, the consumer will just see lower prices and consume more gas at the lower price than if it was a higher price which will drive prices back up. Consumers just accept the tax as part of the price of gas and adjust their buying habits accordingly. So it doesn't do any good in the long run. It might give short term, couple of weeks, relief from prices but they will just drift back up due to demand.<br />n<br />nAlso, that tax money is all ready spent for highway projects throughout the US so suspending the tax means money going out to the projects still but no money coming in to the treasury. Yea, that's all we need, a bigger deficit to deal with along with high fuel prices. Not real smart.<br />n<br />nThe easiest way to combat these prices? try to adjust your driving habits so you use less gas. I have here on the ranch. Plant crops that require less farming with a tractor. Make every trip out to work count, plan more jobs per trip, so that you drive around less. Go to town less often and do more when you do go to town. These things are not a lot of fun but they are what you have to do to survive. Bitching and moaning don't get you very far, figuring out ways to cope does.<br />n<br />n<b>An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise. Victor Hugo </b>