For centuries, the United States has been an industrious, ambitious and frugal nation with a gospel that emphasized hard work, temperance, justice and frugality. This is something most of us learned in school as our teachers showed us how our country became such a great superpower. Over the past 30 years, however, much of that has been destroyed for various reasons. During that time, we have become a nation with a debt culture, spending what we don't have today for instant gratification and not thinking about tomorrow. While I expect that from our business leaders, looking to increase profit before shareholders fire them, I expect our nation's leaders not to be so condensing and pander to us that we can have our cake and eat it too.
With nationwide gas now averaging over $4 (though I saw it closer to $3.90 here in central NJ), Senator McCain is once again calling for a gas tax holiday. I'm sure this proposal will be well received. What is it with some politicians with leaving debt for tomorrow instead of having the guts to tackle the problem today? I know that the Senator probably won't be around by time those bills come due, but still -- show a little courage and tell us we're reaping what we sowed or something by buying gas guzzlers and exploiting our cheap energy prices for too long. I feel for those who are suffering, but when you build an infrastructure based on a non renewable resource and the whims of others and not using that non renewable resource as a bridge to a better energy resource, these things are going to happen.
Personally, I like my bridges to be maintained and not fall into the river. I like my roads to remain open and in generally good service because they are maintained. I like not having to buy new rims because I didn't hit the mother of all deferred maintenance pot-holes. I also like the idea of spending a few dollars today to keep a road in good repair than spending millions tomorrow to rebuild a bridge that needs to be replaced before its time. My time not spent detouring for miles and hours is worth more than the 20 cents in taxes I'd save (plus the gallons of gas I wouldn't waste by detouring).
I dislike paying taxes as much as the next guy, but sometimes they are a necessary evil. I'm even willing to pay higher tolls on the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway for their improvements (though not until some more of their waste is eliminated as if that'll ever really happen). Schools, roads, police, a well regulated military and other services that are important to our society aren't free. Even assuming that the tax dollars deferred from road construction and maintenance funds gets pumped back into the economy and not, somehow, simply absorbed by the oil companies somehow, that is still money for road construction and maintenance that will need to be made up somehow, either through new taxes or roads falling apart sooner. As anyone who remembers what happened to NYC's bridges and subways during the 1970s, when the city deferred maintenance and paid for it big time in the 1980s and 1990s (and into the 2000s) when they had to rebuild everything, this is not a great option.
A tax holiday is not even a short term solution to a long term problem. We have a supply and demand problem, we're demanding more oil than is being supplied for various reasons, such as not enough refineries and competition from abroad. It's been awhile since I took economics, but I thought conservatives loved the almighty supply and demand free market hand. Even if oil prices eventually fall, and it turns out these high prices were merely part of a bubble, cheap energy's days are numbered and we still have a long term problem. We're blowing all our resources on today instead of investing for tomorrow. And, under this plan, at the end of the day, we still don't have a good long term solution. As my mother used to say "penny wise and pound foolish."
In any event, even if I'm able to save $30-$40 in gas taxes this summer, I'm probably going to have to spend it at the supermarket as higher fuel prices force truckers to raise their prices or pull their trucks off the road. As this latest run up in fuel prices has shown, the sooner we figure out a more fuel efficient way to move goods from A to B, the better. Until then, of course, we're stuck with the trucks and the consequences that will bring. Somehow I don't think the, maybe $4 or $5 dollars we'll save a week (it helps my wife and I have smaller cars and I either take mass transit or telecommute for work) will make much of a difference (though it will pay for a small sushi package at Wegmans).
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