[pp.int.general] Big Brother in NL?

[Brian McNeil]

On Thu, 2009-11-19 at 11:22 -0500, Richard Stallman wrote:
> You are right. I heard the same. Effectively, vans pay much too little. This 
>     industry (especially in NL!) is effectively subsidised by low taxes. A 
>     proper price will kill a branch of endeavour. Which logically perhaps should 
>     not have existed at all. But politicians don't do that. Another concern is 
>     that there is not really an alternative (I have been told). Even in western 
>     Europe with its dense railway network. And the abondance of waterways. Vans 
>     deliver door to door all over Europe in a relatively short timeframe.
> 
> The cost of road repairs is not really that big.  The biggest harm done
> by trucks is the CO2 emission.  We need to start raising their taxes
> so that, over the next 5 to 10 years, the economy will restructure
> to use such transport less, and use trains for freight more.

Absolutely. However, it may be less of an argument in the US which is
more dispersed than Europe; here - for the companies shipping goods -
they see one of the biggest issues as the time/cost loading and
unloading at rail depots.

I'm fully in favour of restructuring fuel/road taxation to favour the
less-polluting rail option, but it has to be accompanied by
infrastructure investment. Here, in the UK, the ugly hatchet work of
Doctor Beeching has to first be reversed.


-- 
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org>
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
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