Hungry cars
The Economist of 6th December, 2007 (full story, requires login) writes about U.S. subsidies for ethanol:
In other words, the demands of America’s ethanol programme alone account for over half the world’s unmet need for cereals. Without that programme, food prices would not be rising anything like as quickly as they have been. According to the World Bank, the grain needed to fill up an SUV would feed a person for a year.
Yet another example how the state panders to people who choose to drive motorized vehicles by paying for the damage they cause (in this case, paying farmers cash to get drivers to switch away from petrol). Why not tack on an extra tax on petrol if the state now believes its use to have more negative consequences than previously known? Car drivers will say, “but I don’t choose to drive, I have to – I live in the middle of nowhere and have to work in the city.” They forget that they choose to live in the middle of nowhere, to have a big house and be surrounded by pretty countryside. They reap the benefit, they should pay for the cost.
I choose to live in a city (London) where I can reach everything by bike. No-one subsidizes my rent payments.
