12-19-2016, 10:00 AM
Sure, let's throw some more gasoline on the fire.
Nice roads are a subsidy for low-density development which locks the disadvantaged into a system which, should prices increase, will cripple their financial mobility even further.
Specifically: we have nice roads, so of course you don't need to build social benefit centres close to where people live. We have nice roads, so of course affordable housing doesn't need to be close to where people work. And if the gas tax goes up, or a toll is put in place, or some km-driven or road-impact based measure for usage is added, they will impact the poor with devastating effect and terrifying precision.
But the poor will pay, because they have no choice. The roads are already there, so the housing has already been built, the malls have already paved their parking lots, and the schools have already defined their catchments. They can't move closer and ditch their car. They can't buy a newer vehicle and dodge the gas tax. They're stuck.
This is the problem with consumption- or usage-based fees, and one of the key reasons behind progressive income taxation. When you are earning below the median income, HST and Gas Tax and Tolls and Mandatory Insurance and all the other frictional costs are going to take half of your income. (citation needed, sorry. I'm letting the rhetoric carry as I don't actually have data)
So whether you're talking Real World or Ideal World, consider the less fortunate in your plans for their future.
Nice roads are a subsidy for low-density development which locks the disadvantaged into a system which, should prices increase, will cripple their financial mobility even further.
Specifically: we have nice roads, so of course you don't need to build social benefit centres close to where people live. We have nice roads, so of course affordable housing doesn't need to be close to where people work. And if the gas tax goes up, or a toll is put in place, or some km-driven or road-impact based measure for usage is added, they will impact the poor with devastating effect and terrifying precision.
But the poor will pay, because they have no choice. The roads are already there, so the housing has already been built, the malls have already paved their parking lots, and the schools have already defined their catchments. They can't move closer and ditch their car. They can't buy a newer vehicle and dodge the gas tax. They're stuck.
This is the problem with consumption- or usage-based fees, and one of the key reasons behind progressive income taxation. When you are earning below the median income, HST and Gas Tax and Tolls and Mandatory Insurance and all the other frictional costs are going to take half of your income. (citation needed, sorry. I'm letting the rhetoric carry as I don't actually have data)
So whether you're talking Real World or Ideal World, consider the less fortunate in your plans for their future.