Just when you thought big government couldn’t stoop any lower in its inexorable war on freedom and free markets, along comes the next great incursion – little black boxes in our cars which would not only provide government with a record of our movements but exact a new “mileage tax” from our wallets.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has mandated that these black boxes – a.k.a. “event data recorders” – be installed on all new cars sold in America beginning in September 2014.
Meanwhile the federal government and numerous states are looking at ways to use these intrusive devices to further intrude on our wallets and pocketbooks.
“This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do,” one bureaucratic advocate told The Los Angeles Times over the weekend. “There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it.”
Really? The technology is also there to shoot yourself in the face – but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to avail yourself of it.
Meanwhile a bureaucrat-loving educrat (our least favorite species) from Minnesota told the paper “the gas tax is just not sustainable.”
Again … really?
Last time we checked government growth was unsustainable …
We’ve covered the infrastructure debate extensively at the state level and can sum it up thusly: Critical needs are deliberately ignored in favor of totally unnecessary projects (or necessary projects done in an insanely wasteful fashion). And politics – not infrastructure priorities and certainly not taxpayers’ best interests – dictates every step of the process.
But hey … let’s further starve the free market so we can throw more money at that equation, shall we?
Surely that will work …
Compounding the economic insanity of such a policy is the crass invasion of privacy these “black boxes” would foist on consumers.
“This is simply idiotic,” write the authors of Liberty Blitzkrieg. “There is already a tax per gallon on gasoline, so people are already being taxed based on how much they drive. Only a control-freak, moronic government bureaucrat would come to the conclusion that the solution to this problem is to install Orwellian tracking devices in people’s cars.”
Exactly …
26 comments
Unless everyone starts driving solar-powered cars, just tax the fuel source and be done with it. Drivers of gigantic, gas-guzzling SUVs or trucks pay more taxes than some dude in a Prius? Yeah, that’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
That’s the beauty of it, the black boxes make the taxes on solar powered/electric vehicles possible so it’s “fair” to everyone. I mean the electric cars wear down the roads and help clog the freeways and require new highways, traffic light, stop signs – its endless really.
Seems more likely to put the electric/solar cars out of business. At least 32 cents per gallon of gas is tax, so you’re losing that much in savings by taxing by the mile.
This is so the drivers of fuel efficient and electric vehicles ‘pay their fair share,’ since they don’t pay as much tax on fuel.
And, yeah, they’ll use it to tax solar powered cars, too.
It’s coming. We, the ones who do try to pay attention to what is going on in DC (or state capitals) are too busy to bother with this now. Later when we do start beating the drums about these black boxes we will be demagogued as whiners and there you have it, black boxes in every car and quarterly taxes to pay. I predict that in ten years there will be a thriving underground industry of “black box” tampering much like there is “tax avoidance” for income and capital gains taxes and of course “honest” people in over crowded jails.
Haven’t event data recorders been on cars for like 20 years? They’re definitely on tractor-trailer rigs. It really just records the last second of data before an accident.
I see that chains are your preferred outer wear.
If you drive a car built in the last 20 years, then I suppose you’re a slave like me.
It’s one thing to track non geographical driving data for a minute, versus tracking your daily driving habits and geography on an ongoing basis for the sole purpose of taxation but with the added bonus of potential prosecution in aid to the police state.
You must hate Onstar.
Correct. I actually specifically bought a Chevy with it deleted.
If they can’t budget for roads now, why make it easier for them to take money for their overruns aside from the privacy implications?
With the black boxes, electric cars, hybrids, and high mileage vehicles can be taxed at a higher per mile rate to compensate for the loss in gas tax revenue due to efficiency. An even bigger bonus will be the automatic issuing of speeding and traffic tickets based on gps location and black box data. True savings would be realized by eliminating the highway patrol. Got to love technology.
They could also ask you, “Did you really need to make a special trip just for a gallon of milk? Couldn’t you have waited until heading home from work tomorrow? Better yet, why didn’t you get it on the way home tonight? There will be a penalty for that.”
Damn, NSA is going to have to build a bigger data center.
If they can hack an iPhone 30 minutes after it comes out, they’ll have these boxes hacked and disabled before the end of the day. The box will just appear to be defective.
I’d have it set up to run in reverse so they’d have to pay me for driving…
I can’t wait until they wire a black box into my head to tax me for breathing based on how much my exhales pollute, or sew one over my asshole to count how many shits I flush down the toilet a day so they can properly maintain the sewer system.
Fuck these people.
Please leave your name and number with the Democratic National Committee; we would like to discuss these ideas with you to help develop future revenue streams for our federal government. We find we are starting to run out of things to tax and you seem like quite the creative sort. You may find yourself moving up the ladder quickly here. We are anticipating a favorable response and wish to say “Welcome aboard”!
My 40 year old, two stroke, TS 250 Savage is looking better and better as a primary mode of transportation. No black box – shoot it’s a kick start and doesn’t even have a battery, the tag expired 2 years ago and with the old school knobbies, I can handle our broken roads with no problem.
Awesome ride!
I’ve got a small displacement older bike I cruise around town on once or twice a week. I wouldn’t do any freeway riding with it, but its fun as snot.
Here is the problem with Tax on Gas.
The national Gov is mandating higher and higher fuel millage on cars. There is a chance Fifteen, twenty years from now cars will be running on something other than
Gas.
Now liberal Gov at both the national level are providing huge incentives to people to Electric and Hybrid cars. Gov is already seeing a huge impact on the amount of revenue that is being generated by Gas Tax.
Heck there is a chance that twenty years from now, no new car runs on Gas as we know it today.
So how does the Gov plan on making up the Difference? Yep a millage tax. And how Just how does the Big Brother plan on taxing millage? Maybe we can go on the honor system. Each year you can fill in a box on the tax returns, Since that has not worked in the past they want install little black boxes in your car that tells them
exactly how many miles you drive. Hell those little black boxes most likely will tell them where you have driven, when you have driven, and best yet, how fast you have driven. Yes my friend Gov at its finest.
The Ford is my auto; I shall not walk. It maketh me to lie down beneath it.
It leaveth me stranded in deep waters. It vexeth my soul.
It leadeth me in the path of ridicule for its namesake.
Yea, though I ride through the valleys, I am towed up the hills.
I fear all evil for my sparkplug corrodeth.
My rods and my bolts discomfort me.
It preparest a puncture in the presence of trouble.
It anointest my hands with grease. My radiator boileth over.
Surely, curses and punctures shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall plead before the Ford in vain forever.
Somebody proposed that all cars should have car phones in them and their
license plates should be their phone numbers. So you can call them up and tell them
to get the hell out of the way. Very elderly people would have 800 numbers.
Why bother with this? They can use your GPS on your cell phone to track your mileage (and speed, and whether or not you obey fixed traffic signal) already?
Too many disposable phones out there.
Here’s a video segment on Fox News
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2777192624001/mileage-tax-on-fuel-efficient-cars/?intcmp=obnetwork
It’s coming faster than I thought!
Just like the Lexington County penny sales tax!
(Wonder if Lex Co is trying to hire Lillian McBride?)
Wanna see these lawless rogues in government get their assess handed to them? Just keep pissing off tens of millions of already angry Americans (WE THE PEOPLE). It won’t be long before the cuckoos come out of the shadows and start shooting politicians. No point denying it. We all see it happening at the rate these out of control demons are trying to make slaves out of us all. Even members of the US Military and Homeland Security are whispering that elected and appointed leaders must be thrown in prison for their never ending bad behavior.