
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991                   TAG: 9102260406
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NO GAS TAX WILL PREVENT DRIVING CAR

I TELL the editors of this newspaper right away that a 50-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline will not prevent me from driving my car wherever I want to go anytime I feel like it. Neither would a dollar tax increase deter me.

There are basically two ways to prevent me from driving (unless, of course, you kill me), both involving (government?) force at the point of a gun: taking my car from me - i.e., stealing it; or dictating to me when I may use my car and where and how far I am permitted to drive.

If any of you editors understood the absolute principles necessary for the functions of a free-market economy, you would understand that every energy crisis is caused by government intervention. Taxation, inflation, regulations and controls.

I refer you to seven decades of economic disasters in the Soviet Union. Is there greater energy conservation in the Soviet Union than in the United States? Is there greater pollution? Is there a greater degree of slavery, robbery, murder, poverty, misery and destruction in the Soviet Union than in the American welfare state?

If you really want to understand the cause of energy crises, such as America's dependence on Arab oil in the 1970s and today, I recommend Professor George Reisman's "The Government Against the Economy." ASA COLEMAN BIG ISLAND

by CNB