The Rich Car Tax

Basic needs are defined as what is needed to achieve long term physical well-being. In brief, food, water and shelter come first in importance. Sanitation and healthcare place a close second. I would add electricity to this but in my dream scenario, electricity would cost pennies and be available to everyone.

A citizen is deemed poor if he cannot afford any of the above necessities. Based on this comment, if we have needs that are deemed necessary for life, then why is electricity or heat being turned off by Power companies in the middle of winter? What society does that to their citizens?

Only a society driven by corporate greed could allow fellow citizens to freeze in January or live on Macaroni and Cheese seven days a week. Only a society driven by dollars could produce criminals from otherwise good people. Only a society with backward economic morals could give half-million dollar bonuses to the CEO of a utility company. Think of how many homes could be heated with five hundred thousand dollars. Think of how many crimes would be averted if bills were paid on time.

There is a way to build hundreds if not thousands of vertical farms (VF) in the next five years without taxing the entire population. It’s similar to a carbon tax but it’s entirely fair and may I add, justifiable.

The sticker price for a Toyota Prius in Toronto, Ontario is approximately thirty-thousand Canadian dollars. In case you’re unaware, a Prius is an electric/gas hybrid with decent mileage. Tesla is manufacturing an electric car with great mileage for a similar starting price; maybe a bit more. So here we have electric cars that are fairly inexpensive and obviously good for the environment but I don’t see many on the road. What I do see is an abundance of BMW’s, Lexus and ridiculously large SUV’s or trucks, all of which are not friendly on the environment.

Here’s the deal. If you can afford to pay fifty grand or more on an automobile that leaves a bad carbon footprint, then you have to pay to repair the environment. Charge a one-thousand fee for cars between fifty and sixty- thousand dollars; two-thousand between sixty and seventy thousand and so on, i.e. one thousand dollars for increments of ten-thousands of sticker price. Then, every year when license plates need to be renewed, an additional two hundred dollars will be charged. To many of these car owners, the fees are a drop in the bucket so no harm, no foul. In return, vertical farms and solar grids are being built en masse. The solar grids could power entire communities for pennies. If the VF’s are being built off “rich car” fees, the cost to grow food year round and locally decreases significantly and the selling price will also drop especially since the VF’s are government owned or run as not-for-profit. It’s a win-win for everyone except for those that pay the fees and it creates jobs from incendiary business.

It’s very important that big business be removed from the equation. This is the only way that the vertical farm dream can become a reality for all people and not just a selected few. As soon as you add corporations to the equation, the formula becomes skewed and suddenly costs double. Welcome to Western Economics 101. We can supply entire communities with cheap food and electricity if, and only if, the vertical farm and solar programs are run by non-profit organizations.

There is, of course, one other variable called Five To One.

Talk to you soon.