That’s a personal and political choice.
LA called me to jury duty during the OJ trial (not on it). I lived in Santa Monica. I walked to the closest stop for Santa Monica’s #10 bus (the bus in Speed, though it used a different number). It got on the busway next to I-10, drove downtown, dropped me off after 3 stops in front of the courthouse. We whipped by the losers driving cars. I didn’t have to drive or park. I paid $1.25.
Taxes are like a baloon full of water. Squeeze it one place, it just bulges out someplace else. So you just move the problem to another place.
Good for you if you like piling in with a bunch of people you never saw before and breathing their air. We don’t have regular bus service and barely have a taxi. Nearest store is 5 miles and nearest town is ten miles. Gets cold here in the winter too. Not your 40 degrees cold but ten below cold. Instant death. My commute was 50 miles. Too far to walk or bike. I suppose I could have moved everyone to a downtown flop house but as you say, that is a personal choice. See, you think everyone should do as you do, and I think everyone should do as I do. Bottom line is everyone should do as they want to.
Agree it is a personal choice but often one with limited options…
It is only political for narcissists that insist on virtue signaling everything in their lives.
Agree that is the american way. 
As long as it is legal.
Like stores, churchs, gyms, auditoriums, classrooms…
I didn’t say it was universal. I’ve lived out in the country, the temperature has fallen below -17°F - and I lived in a cabin I heated with wood. I kept a pot of water on the stove because the only way I could have liquid water in the morning was by thawing it.
Most people live in cities that would be easier and cheaper to travel in with public transit.
Politics is how we decide to govern the portions of our lives that we have to share, such as the air and roads. New Yorkers have chosen to have an extensive public transit system that makes it easier and cheaper to get around town than private cars. Most cities could do the same. It’s a political decision. The personal decisions one can make are based on the political decisions we all make.
Some Vermonters have decided not to pay enough fuel tax to keep their roads paved. They have to deal with the cost of driving on gravel or dirt, a personal decision conditioned on a political decision.
Yep, that’s the way it was done about 1860. We’ve made some progress since then.
You must live in a city with good public transportation. I have cousins in NYC who own a law firm. Most of them don’t drive or even own a car. A few of them have never had a drivers license.
Getting around without a car here in New England is NOT an option. Place I work is actually not far from a commuter rail. And I don’t live that far from a commuter rail. So in order to take the commuter rail to work. I’d have to catch the 6am train into Boston. Then the 8:30 train out of Boston and arrive at work at around 10. Then do the same commute in reverse going home. So basically 8 hours a day commuting. Yea Right.
A good public transportation system is a decision a population makes in most cities.
Boston is in New England. I had a girlfriend there who didn’t own a car. I didn’t.
You live in NH and work in Boston? That’s not living in a city, at least not the one you work in. When downtown Baltimore renovated in the '70s people who worked in DC, wanted to live downtown but couldn’t afford it in DC (I remember the prices after '68!), lived in Baltimore, took Metro Rail to work.
I’ve read about people who lived way out, flew into work.
It’s a HUGE financial decision. We’re talking BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of dollars.
That depends on where you are. Live IN Boston or and live and work near good public transportation where you don’t have to make multiple transfers then it’s doable. As I stated in order for me to take public transportation (commuter rail) the commute was a few hours a day. The only people I know who can waste a few hours a day are adults with no kids.
No. I said I would have to commute into Boston on train then take another train out to where my offices are. 1 hour in…plus 1 hour out…plus time driving to rail…then the time waiting for the next available train…then walking to work once I got off at my stop.
For SOME it’s great. But to make it more convenient for everyone it would cost the state BILLIONS and BILLIONS. And a lot of people are not taking public transportation right now because of Covid fears.
People are spending BILLIONS and BILLIONS to drive their own cars.
So what? That’s their choice. Taxes for a system that may or may not work is not a choice.
How about we stop forcing everyone to pay taxes for the roads then? We spent trillions on wars that didn’t work.
You must live in a great fantasy world. I live in reality.
Oh boy. Just trying to keep the clicks up. I don’t know if you should complain about the road taxes from filling your truck up once a year or so. Me on the other hand fill up about once a week, plus pay sales tax of cars, license fees, and so on. It’s kind of a user thing. OTOH we still have the freedom to use our own money as we want.
I don’t like spending money on war either or maiming and killing our best, but gotta admit lots of people made a lot of money from the VN war making helicopters etc. And the CIA was certainly a beneficiary. But I think WW II worked, at least for the folks in Europe. And I think the Korean War had some benefit if you ask the South Koreans-of course that hasn’t ended yet. The Civil War Seemed to work even though some have forgotten, and of course the Revolutionary War gave us the freedom to write whatever you want at Car Talk (within reason). So depends on how you look at it, but in economics a dollar spent is a dollar spent regardless of what for.
Privilege helps.
Which one is it? Those two sentences contradict one another.
Lets see , the fuel cost to consumer might be x.xx but the state puts 20 cents excise tax on fuel and later raises it to 22 cents . How is that not a direct effect on price ?
Yup. 50 years of hard work and saving will do that.
What part of “directly” do you not understand?
The fuel price to consumer is based on supply and demand. If the $.02 is added directly, and it will be short term, then the demand will drop a little resulting in oversupply. That will lead to a reduction in price to increase demand. The oil company loses in this case. If the excise tax were to jump to $5.00 as proposed by an ex presidential candidate, then the price of gas could go through the roof, even higher than the $5.00 tax. It is really complicated. The government will have to be very careful when raising the tax.