Question

In: Economics

People argue that a higher tax on gasoline is not necessarily an increase in gasoline taxes....

People argue that a higher tax on gasoline is not necessarily an increase in gasoline taxes. Explain if you agree or disagree with this statement.

I need a thorough (at least) two or three paragraphs answer.

Solutions

Expert Solution

A higher tax on gasoline is not necessarily an increase in gasoline taxes.I agree with this statement and i will try to explain why in the following manner:

Increasing taxes on gasoline will create a huge amount of revenue which can be spend on financing welfare programmes, mainly for the poor which can bridge the gap between poor and the rich. Most of the poor don't even use a car so he doesn't really need to spend on gas and so they are not faced with the burden of tax.The government can instead spend the revenue on activities like education of poor,various welfare plans for the retired,disabled people and for the poor who don't earn enough which will decrease the cost of living for the society as a whole as the present generation will reap the benefits after some years while also creating equitable distribution of resources.

The high tax will allow the government to curb pollution as people will spend less on gas and prefer to use the resource in an optimal manner and as we see today that we are facing problems like global warming, ozone hole and various other environmental problems, we may get some relief as pollution will decline and the future generations will reap the benefits.

The government can use the improved revenue on improving the infrastructure of the country, maintain the roads, improve the transport system and finance the various investments which will yield positive benefits over the years thereby distributing the economic benefits to the whole society which will in turn raise the standard of living, increase the wages and income, generate employment opportunities, increase the efficiency, reduce the costs and bring in more revenue worth billions of dollars per year.

Besides, it is optimal to tax gasoline higher as energy products have very small elasticity of demand. The government is only sending the signal to the economy that we are consuming fuel at a high rate and we need to curb it rather than increasing it.


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