I read the
other day that overwhelming majorities of Americans support federal
fuel economy mandates: 77 percent of Republicans and 92 percent
of Democrats, according to a recent poll (see here).
That means they also support the $1,300 line item on the window
sticker of the new Cadillac CTS-V GM dropped off for me to evaluate
this week. It’s not a wheel/tire package. Not an upgrade audio
system. Not special paint.
It’s
a “gas guzzler” tax.
You buy the
CTS-V, you pay $1,300 extra — on top of the sales
tax; on top of the title taxes — with the money you’ve
got left after paying federal, state, local, Social Security and
Medicare taxes. And why? Because your fellow (and frequently flag-waving)
Americans are anti-freedom. They resent you — the
buyer of a car like the CTS-V, which uses more fuel than they think
it ought to use — and have put in place mechanisms
designed to punish you for having the effrontery to buy
such a car.
They will cry,
“but the CTS-V is a gas hog!”
And they
are liberty hogs — because they cannot comprehend that whatever
gas the CTS-V uses — whether it’s a lot or a little
— every last drop of it was paid for in toto by the
owner of the car. These people have no more right to bitch about
the gas that goes into the tank of a CTS-V than they do about the
gas that goes into the tank of a Prius hybrid. In both cases, the
owners of the cars bought the gas. It is their gas. Whatever
stake that amorphous entity that goes by the name of “society”
might have had in the disposition of that fuel prior to the sale
of that fuel is vitiated by the fact of its purchase — at
which point the fuel becomes the property of the person
who bought it. Who paid for it in full — including the regressive
and confiscatory motor fuels taxes that are part and parcel of every
gallon purchased.
The buyer of
a car such as the 556 horsepower supercharged CTS-V, which does
indeed use a great deal of gas, also pays a great deal more in motor
fuels taxes than the Prius driver. That means, he pays more
to maintain “our” roads than the Prius driver. A great
deal more, in fact. It says so — in bold face type, right
there on the MSRP window sticker: “You SPEND
$6,150 more in fuel costs over five years, compared to the average
new vehicle.”
The Prius driver
should applaud the CTS-V driver, who is subsidizing
his hybrid. At the least, he ought to have the decency to leave
him in peace. After all, he’s paying the lion’s share
of the tab for “our” roads — not the
Prius driver.
Instead, the
Prius driver, the freedom-hating American, wants to punish
the driver of the CTS-V.
Again.
(Don’t forget all those other taxes, already paid
— and in greater proportion, since “the rich”
who buy cars like this also pay disproportionately higher taxes).
It’s
despicable.
But also indicative
of the envy-addled, control-freak cancer that’s metasticizing
across the country. The sickness of mind — and heart —
that begrudges others their liberty, their free choice. And which
is determined to impose its values and views on others by force.
June
25, 2013
Eric Peters
[send him mail] is an
automotive columnist and author of Automotive
Atrocities and Road Hogs (2011). Visit his
website.
Copyright
© 2013 Eric Peters
This article originally appeared on: Lew Rockwell