Fun with Politics (112)

The media seems to think we’ve missed something, as they keep yapping about how expensive the gas is. Do they think we haven’t noticed? Talking about it doesn’t make it any cheaper anyway. Just remember that it can always be worse. My father, who lives in the Netherlands, pays (we did the math) $8.79 per gallon. I don’t know about you, but all I have to do is think of that number, and I’ll whistle while I pump.

156,463 homes have so far been foreclosed in 2008, so I’d say that the price of gas is probably not the biggest problem right now. Where do all these people go? How many of them actually end up homeless? What happens to the ones that don’t? Numbers don’t mean much without the human faces behind the story.

 

Nonetheless, there is much talk about the Gas tax holiday. I wasn’t sure exactly what the details were; yet I’d love to have an opinion. Here’s what I found, so you can make up your own mind:

 

Gas tax holidays are typically bad tax policy. First, the revenue must be made up somehow unless the state cuts spending. (In the case of a surplus, that still means that some spending is foregone or some other tax cut is foregone.) Therefore, another tax is going to have to go up or spending will have to be cut. Second, cutting the gas tax may not have much effect in the short-run due to relatively inelastic short-run supply, meaning much of the benefit of holidays will flow to the producers (i.e. stockholders of oil and gas companies). The longer the tax cut, however, the greater the benefits to consumers. (Source: The Tax Foundation blog)

“In the case of a surplus…” Now, that’s funny.

 

Then there was Josef Fritzl, who went to court today. Why, I’m not sure. I know every country needs an honest and fair legal system, but sometimes you have to wonder whether an exception should be made. Maybe they can accidentally set him loose and leave it up to his neighbors to deal with him. Not that it matters to the victims; after 24 years underground, suffering that level of abuse, no one can expect any semblance of normalcy. And the children that have never seen daylight; forget about it.

His wife claims she never knew, and I have enormous difficulty believing that. Not much is known about her life with him, at this point; the only thing we’ve been told is that he was an overbearing man who had an iron grip on his family, and had strictly forbidden anyone to go downstairs. Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t; but wouldn’t she have wondered why it was so damn important she stay out of the basement? For 24 years? What terribly monstrosity did he tell her was in there? Oh wait; that was him.