{"id":44923,"date":"2013-06-25T05:00:36","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T04:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/americans-hate-freedom\/44923\/"},"modified":"2013-06-25T05:00:36","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T04:00:36","slug":"americans-hate-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/americans-hate-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Hate Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n
\n \"\"<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

I read the
\n other day that overwhelming majorities of Americans support federal
\n fuel economy mandates: 77 percent of Republicans and 92 percent
\n of Democrats, according to a recent poll (see here<\/a>).
\n That means they also support the $1,300 line item on the window
\n sticker of the new Cadillac CTS-V GM dropped off for me to evaluate
\n this week. It\u2019s not a wheel\/tire package. Not an upgrade audio
\n system. Not special paint.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s
\n a \u201cgas guzzler\u201d tax.<\/span><\/p>\n

You buy the
\n CTS-V, you pay $1,300 extra<\/em> \u2014 on top of the sales
\n tax; on top of the title taxes \u2014 with the money you\u2019ve
\n got left after paying federal, state, local, Social Security and
\n Medicare taxes. And why? Because your fellow (and frequently flag-waving)
\n Americans are anti-freedom<\/em>. They resent you \u2014 the
\n buyer of a car like the CTS-V, which uses more fuel than they think
\n it ought<\/em> to use \u2014 and have put in place mechanisms
\n designed to punish<\/em> you for having the effrontery to buy
\n such a car.<\/span><\/p>\n

They will cry,
\n \u201cbut the CTS-V is a gas hog!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And they<\/em>
\n are liberty hogs \u2014 because they cannot comprehend that whatever
\n gas the CTS-V uses \u2014 whether it\u2019s a lot or a little
\n \u2014 every last drop of it was paid for in toto<\/em> by the
\n owner of the car. These people have no more right to bitch about
\n the gas that goes into the tank of a CTS-V than they do about the
\n gas that goes into the tank of a Prius hybrid. In both cases, the
\n owners of the cars bought the gas. It is their<\/em> gas. Whatever
\n stake that amorphous entity that goes by the name of \u201csociety\u201d
\n might have had in the disposition of that fuel prior to the sale
\n of that fuel is vitiated by the fact of its purchase \u2014 at
\n which point the fuel becomes the property<\/em> of the person
\n who bought it. Who paid for it in full \u2014 including the regressive
\n and confiscatory motor fuels taxes that are part and parcel of every
\n gallon purchased.<\/span><\/p>\n

The buyer of
\n a car such as the 556 horsepower supercharged CTS-V, which does
\n indeed use a great deal of gas, also pays a great deal more in motor
\n fuels taxes than the Prius driver. That means, he pays more<\/em>
\n to maintain \u201cour\u201d roads than the Prius driver. A great
\n deal more, in fact. It says so \u2014 in bold face type, right
\n there on the MSRP window sticker: \u201cYou SPEND<\/strong>
\n $6,150 more in fuel costs over five years, compared to the average
\n new vehicle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Prius driver
\n should applaud<\/em> the CTS-V driver, who is subsidizing<\/em>
\n his hybrid. At the least, he ought to have the decency to leave
\n him in peace. After all, he\u2019s paying the lion\u2019s share
\n of the tab for \u201cour\u201d roads \u2014 not<\/em> the
\n Prius driver.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, the
\n Prius driver, the freedom-hating American, wants to punish<\/em>
\n the driver of the CTS-V.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again<\/em>.
\n (Don\u2019t forget all those other<\/em> taxes, already paid
\n \u2014 and in greater proportion, since \u201cthe rich\u201d
\n who buy cars like this also pay disproportionately higher taxes).<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s
\n despicable.<\/span><\/p>\n

But also indicative
\n of the envy-addled, control-freak cancer that\u2019s metasticizing
\n across the country. The sickness of mind \u2014 and heart \u2014
\n that begrudges others their liberty, their free choice. And which
\n is determined to impose its values and views on others by force.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Read
\n the rest of the article<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

June
\n 25, 2013<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Eric Peters
\n [send him mail<\/a>] is an
\n automotive columnist and author of <\/i>Automotive
\n Atrocities and Road Hogs<\/a> (2011). Visit his
\n website<\/a>.<\/i><\/span> <\/p>\n

Copyright
\n \u00a9 2013 Eric Peters<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\n Best of Eric Peters<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>
\n \n <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: Lew Rockwell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}