by Joe Cobb
Photo Enforcement is pervasive now all over Phoenix and Arizona, clearly as a revenue measure, but it is also an effective speed-reduction system. I have quickly learned where I can speed and where I must brake down to 65-55mph (Arizona DPS highway cops do post yellow diamond signs giving you half-mile and 300 ft. warnings, so you have time to hit the brakes.)
I understand and celebrate the spirit of rebellion. Why should the fucking government use new technology to extract cash from us, just to use the free roads.
Free roads?
Zero priced roads are not zero cost roads, and the gasoline excise tax pretends to cover this problem. A tax on vehicle axle weight would be more sensible, in regard to road maintenance.
I regard all of the roads as “somebody’s property,” in this case the highway department boss (government employee). He is the commissar who should be mandated to operate his transportation system at a cash profit. Yes, I say “cash profit” to take away the fuzzy “social benefits” claim.
I understand these new photo enforcement cameras as a toll collection – revenue technique. Toll booths and electronic-radio car sensors are other toll collection revenue techniques. The difference is that they give me a choice:
Taxation Methods
Among the choices of sales (consumption taxes), net income taxes (reduces savings), and direct taxes (per capita), the Henry George/D.Ricardo/Adam Smith proposal to tax land rent – and not to tax labor or capital – is the best. It is least worse among bad things.
Add to this list what I call “the Pirates of the Caribbean tax system.” Instead of the tax collector getting maybe 10% from all of the producers, he takes 100% from a decimated group. It would increase uncertainty, but fiscally the result is the same.
Cameras at intersections, to catch red-light runners; cameras along the freeway to collect speed fines; and the sneaky photo vans they move around to nab drivers at unusual locations; all of these are very annoying, but they are merely a “Pirates of the Caribbean” tax on highways.
