Taxed per mile by GPS?
I’ve heard about the plan to tax per mile by GPS devices for a while. From what I understand Canada has looked into this and a few US states have been researching the idea. However, it seems to be getting some traction now with the Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, endorsing the idea. What’s more disturbing is that this guy is a Republican and one of the states interested in this is Idaho, a Republican stronghold. And the Republican party wonders why they are having problems? I am a Republican, and I can’t identify with, or remotely support, invasive government expansion like this. As I have said before, the Republican party needs to adopt more libertarian ideas.
In case you aren’t familiar with what this is all about, this is a plan to put little GPS units in every car that tracks the number of miles you drive and taxes you on that. Sound like an invasion of privacy? That’s because it is. A blatant one. This gives the government the opportunity to track everywhere you go. Of course, they will claim that the device is to only track the mile you drive for taxation purposes. Yep, the whole “trust us” song and dance again. Honestly, do you trust the government that much? The temptation to use this kind of technology for other (personal?) agendas is simply too great. I guarantee that this technology, if implemented, will be misused. That is a simple fact.
As if that wasn’t a big enough reason to shoot the idea down before it even leaves the brainstorming table, lets consider a few more things. How much would it cost to install these devices in mass? How do you tax per mile on toll roads? Isn’t that double taxation? And lets not forget about this one: The American people are sick of being taxed to death!
Update: A little more food for thought. This technology can easily be used to automatically issue traffic tickets. The GPS can detect the speed you are traveling at an issue a speeding ticket for any increment above the legal limit. For that matter, they could do away with speeding tickets and tax you extra for every additional mile per hour you go above the limit. Why stop there? You could link this to the traffic lights and signals and automatically issue fines for any number of moving violations. Police could have the means to not only track you, but disable you vehicle as well. The possibilities for abuse are virtually endless!
We already pay a tax on the fuel we use to drive our vehicles. If this idea came to pass we would pay tax on fuel, pay taxes on driving the vehicles, pay taxes for the roads and pay taxes for other infrastructure.
….that sounds illegal and like the consumer can’t win.
Can the consumer eventually rip it out of their vehicle?
Then proceed to buy a Rand McNally map from the store?
Good old paper. Freedom.
http://www.amazon.com/Rand-McNally-Atlas-Large-Scale/dp/0528942107
The open road. The sun. A clock. A paper map. Your brain. That’s all you need.