Usage fees are a form of double taxation that get passed down to you the consumer. Historically usage fees for roads (tolls) exceed the cost of construction and maintenance and are widely considered one of the most abused forms of taxation (right below gambling). The City of Houston (where I am from) regularly borrows money from METRO (the folks that own the toll roads). METRO has such a large annual surplus that it covers a lot of deficit spending by the city.
I already pay usage taxes in the form of sales tax and of course I also pay income tax. I also pay a host of telecom taxes, city services taxes, gas taxes etc...
There are a lot of good commercial uses for location based services like making trucking routes more efficient and lowering the costs of goods and services. Why would anyone support (or even worse elect) someone determined to levy yet another tax.
Slashdot Mirror
Usage fees are a form of double taxation that get passed down to you the consumer. Historically usage fees for roads (tolls) exceed the cost of construction and maintenance and are widely considered one of the most abused forms of taxation (right below gambling). The City of Houston (where I am from) regularly borrows money from METRO (the folks that own the toll roads). METRO has such a large annual surplus that it covers a lot of deficit spending by the city. I already pay usage taxes in the form of sales tax and of course I also pay income tax. I also pay a host of telecom taxes, city services taxes, gas taxes etc... There are a lot of good commercial uses for location based services like making trucking routes more efficient and lowering the costs of goods and services. Why would anyone support (or even worse elect) someone determined to levy yet another tax.