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Comment by ams6110 | Hacker News Reader

In a perfect world I could support a tax, however in the real world tax revenues first go through the fingers of politicians and they often are diverted to pork. Just a couple of local examples, the "road tax" on gasoline is supposed to fund road maintenace and construction, but it doesn't. It goes into the general revenue fund and is spent on anything and everything. Meanwhile the roads crumble. My state allows casino gambling with the tax revenues going to "education" but again they go into the general fund and the schools still beg for money every chance they get.

Government simply cannot be trusted with tax dollars so they should get the absolute minimum needed to do their lawful duties.

So let the private sector figure out what technology can replace oil, prove it in the market, and then you won't even need a tax.

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however in the real world tax revenues first go through the fingers of politicians and they often are diverted to pork

True, but in this case it doesn't matter. The goal of a gas tax is to incorporate its negative externalities into the price signal, so that if burning a gallon benefits you by $1 but costs $1.50 in environmental damage, you won't do it. What the tax revenue is spent on is basically irrelevant.

>What the tax revenue is spent on is basically irrelevant.

The just thing would be to compensate/protect the victims who are on the receiving end of those negative externalities.

Not if the revenue is spent on something worse than the externality.

Also not if the revenue creates a self perpetuating monster that will devour more revenue even when the externality is gone.

And while we're on the subject, doesn't it seem the least bit concerning that funding specific pork through taxes on diffuse externalities creates a pretty huge incentive to keep that externality going? Who came up with the idea to let the people responsible for eliminating the externality also benefit from the taxes you get from it?

What's pork, in this context? Not fully familiar with American slang.

It's short for "pork barrelling", which refers to public money that is allocated by government to projects in specific areas to sweeten the local voters. Typical examples might be the announcement of new roads or sporting facility, or the awarding of a large government contract to a major local employer, especially just after an election has been declared.

The term itself was not originally pejorative (a barrel full of pork can feed a lot of mouths!) but it is generally used negatively by the press or cynically by certain government sectors.

Got it now, thanks.

I can't wait for automated government.

Can you elaborate on how that might work? All I'm thinking about now is Boaty McBoatface on a policy level.

I'm sure that was sarcasm.

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