Why don’t legislators just give up and say their aim is redistribution of money, rather than dreaming up “wild lies” that require overdoses of certain chemicals to believe? For example, we read that the General Assembly is considering charging frackers for road repairs. The problem is not that pavement is being torn up to access carbon fuels, it is that big, heavy rigs are tearing up the roads disproportionately to the damage that is caused by big, heavy rigs using the roads for other purposes. It makes as much sense as putting transponders on cars to track their whereabouts, because where one goes is more important than how far one travels.
Weird tax laws have a way of encouraging irrational, annoying behaviors. For example, I know a guy who will swing by his mechanic’s shop to discuss small items, and pull the mechanic out from under a car; just so he can expense mileage between personal errands as auto maintenance for the IRS. Putting a transponder on my car would cause me to frequent strip joints and Babies-R-Us just to mess up my profile.
Of course, the scene boils down to valuing votes above justice. Did you ever notice – of course not – that “fracking” is one of few terms that will Google search engine results headed by an activist site rather than the Wikipedia entry?
What were we talking about?
