206
Headlight height should be regulated
(lemmy.nowsci.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
206 points (92.9% liked)
Unpopular Opinion
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Because of freedom, I prefer punitive taxation of large vehicles like SUV unless associated with a documented need for a vehicle of that capacity.
Why a tax instead of a ban?
"Sure, you can have this dangerous, child-crushing, planet destroying machine that externalizes most of its costs to society, and you can use it in public and be a dick with it, but only if you are rich."
I just feel taxation is a better mechanism to change behavior than outright bans. Both are authoritarian solutions but optional taxes that can be avoided are less so. I favor these solutions over bans for the same reasons I prefer harm-reduction tax-and-regulate schemes over drug prohibitions.
In addition the tax money can be earmarked to do some good, perhaps rebate programs to encourage right-sized vehicle purchases.
As an example, extra taxes on sugary sodas reduce consumption most places they have been tried.
Recent study on sugar taxes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9161017/
Cigarette taxes work too: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3228562/
I dislike the tax idea because it makes it available to the rich without needing a purpose. Taxes are only punitive to the poor. The wealthy should have fewer rights than the underprivileged.
Edit: I think one could suggest a scaling tax based on income, but I don't think this adequately addresses the problem. The purchasing power of a single dollar doesn't scale for income, so the wealthy still benefit from this arrangement even if they have to pay more.
What if taxes or fines were tied to personal wealth rather than a nominal flat fee?
I know there are some European countries that tie fines to annual income. That would do better at equalizing the effects of undesirable behavior regardless of wealth. If a parking ticket or speeding ticket or excessively polluting vehicle is going to cost a wealthy person tens of thousands of dollars extra, maybe they’ll find a more suitable and community-centric behavior.
You still have to get past the upper class tricks of driving “income” down by taking out loans to live off of, but that’s another conversation… maybe tie it to net wealth and make the wealthy sell stocks to pay the fines…
I think that's more closer to fair, and generally I agree, but I believe my edit addresses this concept somewhat and you make a good note about upper class income tricks, though I understand that'll happen regardless in a myriad of situations outside of this hypothetically SUV law/tax.