Current Events

Re: GM CEO wants an increase in gas tax.

Bogart — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:34:41 GMT

You all miss the point. This dude is a government employee who makes a living off of government stealing money and sending a portion of it to him. So obviously he is for a Gas Tax Increase or any other.

Re: GM CEO wants an increase in gas tax.

Ben H. — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:47:36 GMT

This is one of the clearest examples of special-interest corporate welfare I've ever seen.

Re: GM CEO wants an increase in gas tax.

Joe — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 05:07:10 GMT

the whole article is like an ode to Corporatism. Love how he tries to say it would have still been a good idea for GM to be bought by the gov't even thought the taxpayer is likely going to take a loss on the deal.

Re: GM CEO wants an increase in gas tax.

Clayton — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:20:04 GMT

Clearly, the CEO of GM is a very good man and cares deeply about the environment. He is a serious thinker and a moral person and his moral compass has compelled him to speak out on an issue which he has special knowledge of, for the sake of the Mother of us all: Gaia. May the Force be With Him.

Clayton -

Re: GM CEO wants an increase in gas tax.

Kakugo — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:30:28 GMT

It's funny to note the most profitable GM models by far are pick up trucks and SUVs...

The reason for this is very simple: look at the current range of hybrids. Would you buy a Chevrolet Volt, a car so poorly engineered and so expensive it became the butt of many jokes? Or would you rather have a Honda or a Toyota, which are cheaper and much better engineered? With higher fuel costs it's obvious hybrids would become much more palatable, especially to people living in urban areas. This equates to better sales for everybody building hybrids, GM included. But that's not all. Most Japanese hybrids are built in Japan, with US factories mostly reserved to large, US only models like the Toyota Sequoia. At this point it would be child play for the US government to either slap a heavy import tariff or limit import numbers. Reagan did that in the '80s to save Harley-Davidson.

Re: GM CEO wants an increase in gas tax.

John James — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 23:07:56 GMT

Scrooge McDuck:
What do you make of this? Wouldn't a higher tax on gasoline ultimately discourage vehicle use and thus harm GM?

Nope. Take a look again at that first sentence:

"he wants the federal gas tax raised by as much as $1 a gallon to encourage consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars"

Sure they might buy another company's fuel-efficient cars...but not all of them. And he likely makes more money on the cars that he does sell. So it's worth it for him to encourage the government to ~~force~~ encourage people (albeit indirectly) to buy them. Trust me, these people aren't stupid. They are looking out for their self interest and they are not about to come out and argue in favor of something that is (on net) going to go against what they want.

Whatever a company is in favor of, you can be darn sure it will overall benefit the people who own the company. It's the reason Philip Morris supported (and actually helped author) legislation restricting advertising for tobacco products. It's the reason you see Skype, Google, Facebook, Amazon, et al. pushing for government regulation of the Internet. It's the reason you see toy companies like Mattel supporting mandatory laws (again, which it helped write) to require expensive and restrictive toy testing.

Milton Friedman spoke about another instance of this kind of thing (involving the exact same company you bring up, no less) over 3 decades ago...

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GM CEO wants an increase in gas tax.

Scrooge McDuck — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:51:36 GMT

http://detnews.com/article/20110607/AUTO01/106070368/1148/rss25

General Motors Co. (GM) Chief Executive Dan Akerson said he wants the federal gas tax raised by as much as $1 a gallon to encourage consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars, the Detroit News reported Tuesday.

Akerson also told the newspaper that he is confident the government will shed its remaining 26% stake in the once-bankrupt automaker "within the next 12 months, hopefully within the next six months."

With gas already over $4 a gallon in parts of the country, a higher gas tax is a hard sell.

Other auto executives have floated the idea of a gas tax to encourage the sale of fuel-efficient vehicles. Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. has previously advocated a gas-tax increase. On Monday, a Ford spokeswoman said the company "will leave the policy decision to Congress."

In 2009, then-GM CEO Rick Wagoner called a higher gas tax "worthy of consideration."

What do you make of this? Wouldn't a higher tax on gasoline ultimately discourage vehicle use and thus harm GM?