If a weight modifier is used in addition to mileage, you would end up paying what could be considered a fair price based on the damage your vehicle does or doesn't do to the roads. And if odometer readings are used instead of GPS based systems, things could be done without a lot of privacy loss or additional infrastructure.
It will be a small wave and will last until a few people get caught making mistakes. Most people tend to be honest if there are reasonable odds of being caught. Then there will be a slight increase in odometer as hardened odometers are put into place in new vehicles.
Note that those turning back their odometers can get nailed for fraud if they try selling the vehicles.
Tampering can get the Feds and the States on your tail for several different reasons. If it replaces the gas tax, that will be yet another reason to go after someone tampering with the odometer.
I believe that most states have an annual license renewal for vehicles. If one of the requirements is to record your odometer reading as part of the registration, you could make things a lot more fair. Your tax bill would be based on miles traveled and vehicle weight.
If you cheat, odds are you'll get caught if you sell the vehicle. There could be substantial penalties for under reporting.
Odometer 'malfunctions' might result in having to make an assumption that you travel X thousand miles a year, for the first year of the malfunction. If you don't get it fixed it may go up to ten times X thousand miles a year to encourage you to get it fixed.
Removing tax subsidies may equalize things for a while, but as more hybrids and EVs come on line, you'll still need to figure out a way to pay for the roads.
Also consider that removing gas taxes will mean that you remove existing bureaucracy and infrastructure. The net bureaucracy/infrastructure change could be zero.
The infrastructure wouldn't be much if you use odometer readings. If you renew online, it is just an input box on your license tab renewal form where you fill in your current mileage. If the renewal is via paper, the person inputing the data just has to enter another six characters. Behind the scenes code changes would be minimal.
The vehicle weight should already be recorded and the miles traveled can be based on the difference between current mileage and the prior mileage. Multiply by some sort of constant and you get the mileage/weight based tax amount.
Now people could cheat and under report their mileage. But that will bite them when they sell the vehicle and have someone else reporting the mileage on the transfer papers.
Privacy is somewhat protected by the fact that you are tracking total miles, and not locations and mileage. And gas prices, even without gas taxes, will encourage people to buy more efficient cars.
It seems like an unsustainable economic cycle is running here.
A business relies upon the United States to buy their products at a rate and price that is higher than many other parts of the world. They move the manufacturing overseas to reduce costs. That reduces the number of people with good jobs, thus reducing the rate of consumption and the price that can be charged. As more jobs are exported, the consumption rate of the United States decreases. If the decrease is too much, the businesses will go out of business unless the rest of the world can take up that slack.
If the rest of the world can't take up the slack, the businesses deserve to go out of business.
Even when comparing vehicles with four wheels, you do have to factor in the load per square inch. That involves the weight of the vehicle and the tire contact patch of the tires used. The higher the load per square inch, the greater the damage. If the load per square inch of the Golf is greater than the Prius because of the tire contact patch area, then the Golf would be creating more damage, even though the Golf weighs less. That is simple materials science.
It is one of the reasons stiletto heels are banned from some museums. A hundred and ten pound woman in stilettos creates MUCH more of a load on the materials of a floor than a three hundred pound man in tennis shoes.
Having a road use tax based on vehicle weight and annual mileage would be fair enough, though there might be some fudging when dealing with loads and high capacity vehicles. It could even be modified by taking into consideration the number of pounds per square inch a vehicle puts on the road, which can also affect wear and tear.
If all vehicles had the same gas mileage per unit of weight, the tax on fuel is reasonably fair. But pure electric cars don't pay fuel taxes and hybrids don't pay as much.
Right now the difference isn't much of a problem because there aren't that many pure electric cars or hybrids on the road, relatively speaking. In years to come that is likely to change.
When listening to half of a conversation, just remember not to laugh too loud when the person says something really stupid. They are likely to accuse you of eavesdropping on what they consider to be a private conversation, oblivious to the fact that half the world can hear them.
If you want to protect yourself from said accusations, carry along a book of jokes or access a jokes website. That way, if they accuse you of invading their privacy in a public place, you can 'prove' that you were doing something else and accuse THEM of invading your privacy.
Alas, there are undoubtedly people out there that are self centered enough to think they they have a right to privacy in a public place while you don't.
Figure that the Navy exercise was one that uncovered some of the flaws in the overall GPS system. They just happened to be using a jammer that was more powerful than the Chinese made $30 jammers. They learned, the hard way, that jammers affect civilian life too, in ways that people don't understand unless they are intimately involved in the field.
I suspect that all military forces are now aware of such things and are adapting their tactics to deal with it. The Navy just happened to be unlucky in the fact that they did the test in the harbor and not further out at sea. Similar testing done by the Army, Air Force or Marines would likely be done in a more isolated environment, where you can simulate battlefield conditions and not be right next door to a major metropolitan area.
The problem with gas taxes is the differences in gas mileage. And if you have an electric car, you wouldn't be paying a gas tax.
You could, however, avoid having to use GPS monitoring and simply report the total miles traveled based on odometer readings. I believe that there are laws in place that prohibit tinkering with odometer readings, especially if you are reselling a vehicle. And odds are that a road-use tax would have provisions to handle possible cheating, with penalties that make it unprofitable.
There are other tax options available, but gas taxes and road-use taxes tend to be a bit more fair than most because they are based on usage and the actual wear and tear on the road, especially if the road-use taxes take into consideration the weight of the vehicle.
Would it be deep enough? I seem to recall that the cave used for flight in "The Menace From Earth" was fairly high inside, possibly in the kilometer range. The cave discovered here is long and relatively narrow. Given that it appears to be a lava tube, there may not be enough elevation to make flight worth while.
At the same time, you could always put a dome over some of the deeper craters and pressurize it.
And don't forget the number of lawyers that will then get involved because the wells for the eyesore properties are polluted. The people selling the properties can get sued, as opposed to the gas companies that polluted the water.
The down side might be that there are people who will believe you and consider it to be a true win-win situation, especially if they can buy eyesore type property for depressed prices.
The accountants found that they had an audience back then and provided content. Now they have decided that the audience has changed so they have changed the content.
Perhaps the name change is a good thing. It tells people that the channel is not what it used to be. Truth in advertising so to speak.
Not that many years ago, sci-fi was a demeaning term used by SF fans for low grade science fiction. I recall going to a con where the program book mentioned the distinction.
I suspect that SyFy will be what SF and sci-fi fans call the current brand of low grade science fiction. When I first heard about it, my thought was that it sounded like a STD.
There is nothing to prevent it from being built again, perhaps under a different name using a different media, to cater to those who like classic SF&F.
I suspect that some groups would be willing to finance it and perhaps there could be some marketing tie-ins.
Given the tech ability of a number of SF&F fans, I can see instances where the fans and authors work to create quality programming that is then distributed via the Internet.
It is happening to a small degree today. But as personal computers get more powerful, and animation software gets simpler to use, the quality of the work will increase and groups like the SyFi network may take note and do something decent.
I just hope they don't break out the legal eagles and try to lawsuit the independents into oblivion.
You are just restating Sturgeon's Law. "Ninety percent of everything is crap."
If you add personal preferences, I would say that Sturgeon is an optimist and that the percentage should be 99.99%. ("99.99% of the literature in the genre's you don't like is crap.") Of course, I've been an SF&F reader since I was ten, back when sci-fi was used to describe B movies and the really bad SF.
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If a weight modifier is used in addition to mileage, you would end up paying what could be considered a fair price based on the damage your vehicle does or doesn't do to the roads. And if odometer readings are used instead of GPS based systems, things could be done without a lot of privacy loss or additional infrastructure.
It will be a small wave and will last until a few people get caught making mistakes. Most people tend to be honest if there are reasonable odds of being caught. Then there will be a slight increase in odometer as hardened odometers are put into place in new vehicles.
Note that those turning back their odometers can get nailed for fraud if they try selling the vehicles.
Tampering can get the Feds and the States on your tail for several different reasons. If it replaces the gas tax, that will be yet another reason to go after someone tampering with the odometer.
The book was "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." The key phrase is TANSTAAFL - There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
You were dealing with a moon colony that was part prison. Air was one of the examples.
I believe that most states have an annual license renewal for vehicles. If one of the requirements is to record your odometer reading as part of the registration, you could make things a lot more fair. Your tax bill would be based on miles traveled and vehicle weight.
If you cheat, odds are you'll get caught if you sell the vehicle. There could be substantial penalties for under reporting.
Odometer 'malfunctions' might result in having to make an assumption that you travel X thousand miles a year, for the first year of the malfunction. If you don't get it fixed it may go up to ten times X thousand miles a year to encourage you to get it fixed.
Removing tax subsidies may equalize things for a while, but as more hybrids and EVs come on line, you'll still need to figure out a way to pay for the roads.
Also consider that removing gas taxes will mean that you remove existing bureaucracy and infrastructure. The net bureaucracy/infrastructure change could be zero.
The infrastructure wouldn't be much if you use odometer readings. If you renew online, it is just an input box on your license tab renewal form where you fill in your current mileage. If the renewal is via paper, the person inputing the data just has to enter another six characters. Behind the scenes code changes would be minimal.
The vehicle weight should already be recorded and the miles traveled can be based on the difference between current mileage and the prior mileage. Multiply by some sort of constant and you get the mileage/weight based tax amount.
Now people could cheat and under report their mileage. But that will bite them when they sell the vehicle and have someone else reporting the mileage on the transfer papers.
Privacy is somewhat protected by the fact that you are tracking total miles, and not locations and mileage. And gas prices, even without gas taxes, will encourage people to buy more efficient cars.
It seems like an unsustainable economic cycle is running here.
A business relies upon the United States to buy their products at a rate and price that is higher than many other parts of the world. They move the manufacturing overseas to reduce costs. That reduces the number of people with good jobs, thus reducing the rate of consumption and the price that can be charged. As more jobs are exported, the consumption rate of the United States decreases. If the decrease is too much, the businesses will go out of business unless the rest of the world can take up that slack.
If the rest of the world can't take up the slack, the businesses deserve to go out of business.
Even when comparing vehicles with four wheels, you do have to factor in the load per square inch. That involves the weight of the vehicle and the tire contact patch of the tires used. The higher the load per square inch, the greater the damage. If the load per square inch of the Golf is greater than the Prius because of the tire contact patch area, then the Golf would be creating more damage, even though the Golf weighs less. That is simple materials science.
It is one of the reasons stiletto heels are banned from some museums. A hundred and ten pound woman in stilettos creates MUCH more of a load on the materials of a floor than a three hundred pound man in tennis shoes.
Can we encourage Texas to consider secession?
There is also the possibility that the teller went into automatic pilot due to panic. People do strange things when threatened.
Having a road use tax based on vehicle weight and annual mileage would be fair enough, though there might be some fudging when dealing with loads and high capacity vehicles. It could even be modified by taking into consideration the number of pounds per square inch a vehicle puts on the road, which can also affect wear and tear.
If all vehicles had the same gas mileage per unit of weight, the tax on fuel is reasonably fair. But pure electric cars don't pay fuel taxes and hybrids don't pay as much.
Right now the difference isn't much of a problem because there aren't that many pure electric cars or hybrids on the road, relatively speaking. In years to come that is likely to change.
When listening to half of a conversation, just remember not to laugh too loud when the person says something really stupid. They are likely to accuse you of eavesdropping on what they consider to be a private conversation, oblivious to the fact that half the world can hear them.
If you want to protect yourself from said accusations, carry along a book of jokes or access a jokes website. That way, if they accuse you of invading their privacy in a public place, you can 'prove' that you were doing something else and accuse THEM of invading your privacy.
Alas, there are undoubtedly people out there that are self centered enough to think they they have a right to privacy in a public place while you don't.
Figure that the Navy exercise was one that uncovered some of the flaws in the overall GPS system. They just happened to be using a jammer that was more powerful than the Chinese made $30 jammers. They learned, the hard way, that jammers affect civilian life too, in ways that people don't understand unless they are intimately involved in the field.
I suspect that all military forces are now aware of such things and are adapting their tactics to deal with it. The Navy just happened to be unlucky in the fact that they did the test in the harbor and not further out at sea. Similar testing done by the Army, Air Force or Marines would likely be done in a more isolated environment, where you can simulate battlefield conditions and not be right next door to a major metropolitan area.
The problem with gas taxes is the differences in gas mileage. And if you have an electric car, you wouldn't be paying a gas tax.
You could, however, avoid having to use GPS monitoring and simply report the total miles traveled based on odometer readings. I believe that there are laws in place that prohibit tinkering with odometer readings, especially if you are reselling a vehicle. And odds are that a road-use tax would have provisions to handle possible cheating, with penalties that make it unprofitable.
There are other tax options available, but gas taxes and road-use taxes tend to be a bit more fair than most because they are based on usage and the actual wear and tear on the road, especially if the road-use taxes take into consideration the weight of the vehicle.
Would it be deep enough? I seem to recall that the cave used for flight in "The Menace From Earth" was fairly high inside, possibly in the kilometer range. The cave discovered here is long and relatively narrow. Given that it appears to be a lava tube, there may not be enough elevation to make flight worth while.
At the same time, you could always put a dome over some of the deeper craters and pressurize it.
And don't forget the number of lawyers that will then get involved because the wells for the eyesore properties are polluted. The people selling the properties can get sued, as opposed to the gas companies that polluted the water.
The down side might be that there are people who will believe you and consider it to be a true win-win situation, especially if they can buy eyesore type property for depressed prices.
I've had to give up TV because it kept interfering with my reading.
If I really want to see a show, I wait until it comes out on DVD so I can immerse myself in it with minimal commercial breaks.
The accountants found that they had an audience back then and provided content. Now they have decided that the audience has changed so they have changed the content.
Perhaps the name change is a good thing. It tells people that the channel is not what it used to be. Truth in advertising so to speak.
Not that many years ago, sci-fi was a demeaning term used by SF fans for low grade science fiction. I recall going to a con where the program book mentioned the distinction.
I suspect that SyFy will be what SF and sci-fi fans call the current brand of low grade science fiction. When I first heard about it, my thought was that it sounded like a STD.
There is nothing to prevent it from being built again, perhaps under a different name using a different media, to cater to those who like classic SF&F.
I suspect that some groups would be willing to finance it and perhaps there could be some marketing tie-ins.
Given the tech ability of a number of SF&F fans, I can see instances where the fans and authors work to create quality programming that is then distributed via the Internet.
It is happening to a small degree today. But as personal computers get more powerful, and animation software gets simpler to use, the quality of the work will increase and groups like the SyFi network may take note and do something decent.
I just hope they don't break out the legal eagles and try to lawsuit the independents into oblivion.
You are just restating Sturgeon's Law. "Ninety percent of everything is crap."
If you add personal preferences, I would say that Sturgeon is an optimist and that the percentage should be 99.99%. ("99.99% of the literature in the genre's you don't like is crap.") Of course, I've been an SF&F reader since I was ten, back when sci-fi was used to describe B movies and the really bad SF.