Tax rates may not subside, but for a usage tax, tax receipts necessarily subside when the thing being taxed is being used less. The trouble here is that gas taxes, like all usage taxes, are designed to encourage lower usage, because, in theory, lower usage is better for the environment and leads to lower wear and tear on the roads. In this instance, the use tax receipts are going to fall, and the wear and tear on the roads will increase over time, because (a) the cars are heavier on a unit basis, and (b) people will drive more because it costs them less. Whether it's better for the environment depends largely on local energy generation. I don't have a problem in theory with using taxes to increase EV usage in the short term, per se. I have a huge fucking problem giving a tax rebate to someone buying a Model S or a Hummer or an Audi RS. If you can afford one of those cars you don't deserve a tax credit. Period. This is obviously a general problem in America. We love to design tax breaks to nominally "help", then use it as a giveaway to rich people.Taxes never subside!
Henry Petroski made a compelling argument that necessity isn't the mother of invention, luxury is. We don't create things to solve problems, we create things to solve problems slightly better because we're lazy. The Segway was never intended for poor people. It's a scooter with the wheels on sideways that requires a Celeron to stay upright. But without Segways there aren't those single-wheeled things cruising around town that I see people commuting on. Without a fuckton of force-feedback we have no drones. Without drones we don't have half the tech industry trying to figure out how to deliver stuff and people without roads. NOBODY played GM Impact games because GM didn't bother investing the Impact with cachet. Hummers? Oh fuck yeah for some reason a surplus military jeep that's been the greatest embarrassment since the Gama Goat became the pinnacle of luxury transport so which did they sell more of? There's no Henry Ford without Wilhelm Maybach. Also, you're being ridiculous - the tax bracket that buys Model Ss and Audi RSs gets hella more tax breaks than the tax bracket leasing a Chevy Volt and you know it. Being able to brag about the tax breaks is THE motivator for the $150k-a-year set. If you would like to diminish the use of fossil fuels, you need fossil fuels to visibly diminish on MTV's cribs. I mean I could go on but hopefully you get the point - you gotta get the starfuckers, man. Tax receipts usually subside? Fuck yeah but by then you've gotten your rebate. You seem to be attempting to triangulate some weird "gas cars are actually cheaper because they pay more of their fair share of the road" argument that just comes across as "I hate electric vehicles" and that's fine. I drove a Leaf, drove a 911 and went 911 so hard. But you're arguing with a spreadsheet, dude.
I don't hate EVs. I am annoyed by the lack of consideration around all the thorny issues that switching to a primarily EV fleet entails, of which there are a lot, many of which have very high costs and unclear benefits. None of them are reasons not to build EVs, or even to encourage some people to switch. But every asshole with a "TKS ELON" license plate treats you like you're Union Carbide for even suggesting that maybe EVs aren't a panacea. And I do get the point. And I hate the starfuckers, too! I try my hardest not to take life advice from the Kardashians, but I'm sure I'll buy an EV too when it makes sense. Curb Your Enthusiasm new season just started and it features Larry David driving an Audi electric SUV. On that show he's gone from driving a Camry to Prius to an i3 to now whatever the EV equivalent of a Q7 is.
I parked next to Larry David in 2008. He drove a Prius. I think where we disagree is I am entirely aware of all the thorny issues around EVs, but have also been sheep-dipped in all the thorny issues about them since 1994. Internal combustion? I mean, I took apart my first Volkwagen at the age of 6 so all their thorny issues have lived in my head for 40 years. "people getting around" is a public policy issue and smearing each other with our externalities has been the game since we first sat astride horses. Yeah - the EV fuckers are smug. They used to be smug hippies, now they're smug bankers. Bankers drive more adoption. I worked on a vehicle in this museum.Would I much rather the old crowd? hells yeah. But frankly, all the people out there who hate driving should be in an autonomous electric vehicle with seats that face backward. It's better for all of us. And if that means fucking with the externalities, I'm an externality fuck-wither.