Company Betting On GPS-Based Driving Tax
from the we-know-where-you've-been-driving dept
Back in 2003, the state of Oregon considered a driving tax, which would involve putting GPS devices on cars so the government could see how far you drove, and then tax you for it. The idea being that those who drive more should pay a larger portion of taxes to support the roads they drive on. Of course, for many, many people, the idea of the government keeping tabs on where you drive and how far you go seems rather Big Brotherish -- and those people note that you can accomplish pretty much the same thing (making heavy drivers pay more taxes) simply by taxing gasoline. Soon afterwards, the head of California's DMV suggested that a similar taxing and tracking plan made sense. Over in the UK, they've looked at similar proposals as well. It certainly seems a bit early to bet on such a concept as the next big thing, but that apparently hasn't stopped one company from building a device for exactly this purpose and showing it off at a recent conference. The company is smart in positioning it less as a device for tracking drivers and more as a way of "creating toll roads out of every road." The News.com article then goes on to rail against the very idea of toll roads -- but perhaps that's because they're quite rare here in northern California. In other parts of the country, they're a lot more common. Rather than worrying about the toll road aspect, it seems like the idea of government agencies having immediate access to information about where you drove at what time is a lot more troublesome.
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Tracking the wrong people
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Re: Tracking the wrong people
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Re: Re: Tracking the wrong people
Thanks.
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Don't understand? Lemme 'splain: hybrid whores and plugin punks don't use as much - or, in the case of plugins, any - gas at all. Which means the guv'ment isn't getting the taxes from the gas.
Which is bad.
Understand, now? =)
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Then why not just use an odometer? If mileage is all the government really wants to track, why not just develop an 'unhackable' (or extremely difficult to hack) odometer that can be easily added to a car - why does it have to be a location based tracker *and* an odometer?
The other big issue is that such a device would only allow the government to collect road-use taxes on state residents - people that come to visit, or 18-wheelers that don't do a lot of business in Oregon won't have to pay road-use as their vehicles won't be equipped with the necessary tracking equipment - if the tax was collected at the gas pump (as previously suggested) or via toll booths, then the government can collect a "fair" amount from everyone.
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Therefore, whether or not the government admits to it, they will be tracking everyone's every move; logging it in some database to call upon for any circumstance they deem necessary.
This happens, they'll know every move you make, no matter what they say theyre using the data for.
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sure ...
RIIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHHTTT!
I can already hear some pol repeating exactly that line ... "no, really, it's JUST a GPS odometer ... TRUST ME ! "
GoblinJuice nailed it, by the way ... 'nuff said.
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Re: sure ...
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So, how long before Ebayers offer workarounds
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My state does that, but it's not apportioned fairly. A bit of interesting information I came across in my engineering classes was that typically a fully loaded 18 wheeler does the same amount of damage to the roadway as about 4000 automobiles. I saw a sticker on one of those trucks the other day announcing that it paid about $4000/year in road use taxes. Based on that then, my fair share of taxes for my car should only be about $1/year. Instead, I'm charged about 100 times that amount.
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Re:
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taxes
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That's a nice fantasy world you have there. How much is the price of admission.
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Your Soul!
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Some thoughts
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They are already taxing the amount of driving you
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Just jam the signal...
GPS Jammer instructions:
http://www.teamdroid.com/archives/2007/09/07/diy-gps-jammer/
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A guy in Jersey was going through a divorce and his soon to be ex-wife used EZPass records to prove he was having an affair.
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I THINK I WILL BUY
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Unfairly taxes drivers only..
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You guys are to late for the big brother aspect.
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Re: damage to roads
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I gotta call BS
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And how about those that do a lot of driving out of state? You'd be paying your state to drive on some other state's roads! Face it, the government keeps trying to create new taxes to cover up the fact that their inefficient spending has already used up their money for the next 2-3 years and they're broke already. Besides, taxes to the government is like a junkie looking for a new fix. The old doesn't get it anymore, so they're alway on the look out for something new!
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Company Betting On GPS-Based Driving Tax
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txtag tolls
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This idea doesn't just suck, it swallows.
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Like they can really enforce this...
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re: Me
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The other method
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Re: The other method
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Hahahahahahahahahahaha, I'm assuming you've never been to Europe.
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another global warming tax tactic
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exactly
big money maker + big brother watching your every move. brilliant!
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Pick one side or the other
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the taxman
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Both of them are elites of elites in investment sector, yet they are quite different.
Wealth creation: Warren Buffet by direct long-term investing on other public companies through its holding company named Berkshire Hathaway, which main business lies in insurance; while George Soros by hedge fund management
Amount of assets: Warren Buffet > George Soros
Impacts to global economy: George Soros > Warren Buffet, especially during late 1990s’ Asia financial crisis
Influence to the society: George Soros > Warren Buffet, George Soros is much more philosophical than Warren Buffet, well-known books include The Alchemy of Finance, Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve, George Soros on Globalization and The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror (the latest release). George Soros is more open on disclosing how he thinks and acts on investing. Warren Buffet has not published anything so far, except his annual letters to the shareholders of his holding
company
Please note Jim Rogers was George Soros’s partner during the early years of Quantum Fund (was originally named Double Eagle Fund, and then renamed Soros Fund), during the interview, published in Soros on Soros, Soros acknowledged on Jim Rogers’ contribution to Quantum Fund in those days such as on identifying the rising potential of defense sector, and he added one remark, all of investment decisions was made by him, while Jim Rogers conducted all of research and analysis. They respected with each other very much. Jim Rogers was much more cynical towards Wall Street mainstream than that of Soros.
Of course, Jim still is, as an vivid proof, you may check his 2 rounds interviews with our Frontier Visionary Interview at http://www.hwswworld.com/interview.php, they are al great minds, all very philosophical, ascending from technological and scientifical
Frontier Blog - search but not REsearch
http://www.hwswworld.com/wp
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Toll roads
Doesn't mean we like them any more than anyone else does. Normal toll roads are horrible traffic-inducing polluting nightmares. I have a hard time thinking of a less efficient way of collecting revenue than a toll road.
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They are getting preemptive, I guess.
I think they have plenty enough tax money coming in now. The problem isn't the availability of incoming money, it's how it's spent once it's in the hands of incompetent politicians.
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Good luck guys!
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this tax isn't about money
This tax as with most of the others, is just another experiment to tax "bad behavior" in an attempting to curtail or/and control it.
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Leave Me The F*^k Alone!
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You all have it wrong
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More Big Brother and the answer to it!!!!!
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More Big Brother and the answer to it!!!!!
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