Unintended Consequences

The inner thoughts of a politician:

Sometime in the Past
So. Pollution is a big problem. A lot of people drive gas guzzling automobiles. I know, I'll pass a law to give tax breaks to people who buy enviro-friendly cars like the hybrid cars. That'll fix everything.

A year later
Golly. A lot of people are buying these hybrid cars and they aren't using as much gas, which means we aren't getting as much revenue from gas taxes as we used to. This is bad. Hmmm.... Oh! I know, we will tax people based on the miles they drive in between fill-ups rather than on the gallons of gas they use. Let's see $0.02 per mile should be good. That'll fix everything.

Sometime in the future
DOH!!! I didn't think charging an extra $5.00 - $15.00 on every fill-up would reduce people's travel. I just figured people would have continued to drive the same amount of miles. Now, however, due to the excessive cost of transportation people are telecommuting. 25% of all office space has closed down. Now we are not getting in the revenue from commercial property taxes that we once did. The cost of goods has skyrocketed because it costs more to transport them. This has caused people to limit their shopping, thus sales tax revenues have dropped. The stores don't need as many people, so they have had to lay off a few people and thus income tax revenues have dropped. Hmmm...I know...I'll _______________________ (fill in the blank with some "solution"). That'll fix everything.

I find it hilarious that California wants to implement a "mileage tax." Politicians just don't understand how their laws change people's behavior and cause more "unintended consequences." They think they are so smart, but how come a young computer programmer can clearly see the effect of the law while they turn a blind eye.