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London's Mayor Wants Volkswagen To Pay $3 Million In Lost Tolls (citiesofthefuture.eu)
dkatana writes: Since the U.K. government has done nothing to make Volkswagen pay for Dieselgate, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is asking VW to come up with 2.5 million pounds ($3 million) to compensate the city and its residents for the 80,000 diesel cars fitted with cheat devices. "I want to see a proper commitment from them [VW] to fully compensate the thousands of Londoners who bought Volkswagen cars in good faith, but whose diesel engines are now contributing to London's killer air."
The money will be used to fund a new air-quality program for London's schoolchildren, and Mayor Khan is also asking the government to create "a national diesel scrappage" program to help replace vehicles.
The money will be used to fund a new air-quality program for London's schoolchildren, and Mayor Khan is also asking the government to create "a national diesel scrappage" program to help replace vehicles.
Government official wants money he didn't earn. Says he has good reason why he should be allowed to spend it on his priorities.
More like "government official wants money owed to government because of Volkswagen's deceitful practices." When you're a city with a polluter-toll, and you have a car company lying about their emissions causing consumers to unwittingly increase pollution while not paying said-tolls, I think it's safe to say there are damages. I think the government can spend the money however they see fit. What, would you prefer them to send a bill to the drivers of the vehicles? To me, this is the most legitimate and reasonable money-grab I've seen throughout the VW debacle.
Then you're free to vote for a government that won't institute such a toll, which will of course mainly benefit people with more money, as the poor in most major urban centers don't drive at all. The poor, of course, must gain some benefit from breathing in more NOX, right?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Yes it is. You can make the case that it isn't (very) bad if it nets out positive for almost everyone. But you haven't made that case.
There's always a huge infrastucture wish list. Someone will always point to a supposed benefit for someone. All the projects seem great if you forget that you took the money from the people who earned it so you could spend it on yourself/your priorities.
The VW product was not defective. It worked exactly as expected. The VW product was illegal but that's a different issue than the one you mentioned. As an aside, I would want one of these "defective" VW if I was a VW fan looking for a car. All the VWs that I have owned were good cars plus it's cheaper to run than the "restricted" model.