Road Rage

I am a lover of travel.  I enjoy long road trips with that black top stretched before me like a black ribbon of freedom.  So when I read this article on Yahoo I was a little disturbed.  First, it bothers –cause hey I like to travel and that is expensive as is. I feel like I do pay for my miles through the gas tax.  Second it in my mind would further isolate people in rural areas. 

In my hometown the majority of people work out of town.  Like a majority of rural towns the main industry is farming.  The saying behind every successful farmer/rancher is a wife that works in town is very true.  Town is a very fluid concept.  Most people that I know drive at minimum the twenty miles to the nearest urban center.  Many go the extra 40 miles to a town of some size for work. Our young rural folk make the drive to community college or night classes.  Any type of shopping like at a mall is 60 miles.  That’s also the location of the closest bridal store – in case you were wondering.   We also live 25 miles from so-so medical care and 60 miles from legit medical care. If we really want to experience the city we drive up to 3 hours to get there. 

I rack up 60 miles a day traveling to and from work every day.  My husband drives 20 round trip. That doesn’t include an excursion visiting family 100 miles away on the weekend.  I hate looking at my credit card statements – we charge our fuel.  Just think how many times that vehicle is taxed?  Not only are we paying for personal property tax, gas tax, sales tax, license, insurance, it makes my head spin!  Not only that but vehicles lose value so quickly!

I can only imagine what tax on mileage would do!  Wouldn’t manufactures and producers of goods have to pass that expense on to the consumer?  I would assume so.  It would make everything more expensive.  

But that is just one side of it.  Think of how such a thing would limit travel for people in rural areas? How much more would it isolate us from “outside” world, from our urban counterparts? To be honest and maybe I am overreacting but after I read this article I had a flash image from the Hunger Games movie – the different poor districts and the capital…eerie. 

The country is divided urban vs. rural.  Don’t believe me – then seek out the election results by county. If your state is anything like mine only the urban centers voted democrat, rural counties were republican.   Rural people don’t have a very big political voice.  Organizations like HSUS have noticed and taken advantage of this already by their ballot initiatives in some states.

 That kind of thinking would isolate rural areas even more.  Never mind the whole tracking issue. Which gives me the creeps anyway.   

Now from my understanding this is just an idea...but I sure hope they nip it in the bud!

What are your thoughts?  What do you think this is madness??