"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:zoN8e.26116$8Z6.5821@attbi_s21...
Just because French society has different values to the US doesn't make
them "dunderheaded" either.

Call it what you will. Anyone -- French, British, or Martian -- dumb
enough to tax avgas up to $7.50 per gallon is dunderheaded.


Why? Societies make choices about what they want their governments to
provide and what to tax to pay for it. France (and most of the rest of
Europe) has chosen to provide extensive social benefits and pay for them
with taxes mostly on consumption. The US has also chosen to provide
extensive social benefits and also buy a huge mililtary and pay for it with
taxes mostly on production (and borrowing from their children.).

If you look at it dispassionately, avgas is used primarily for recreation
producing noise and pollution as byproducts. This is particulary true in
France where trains go faster than most aircraft burning avgas. Why does it
make more sense to tax people's productive effort directly through income
taxes than it does to tax avgas?

Mike
MU-2


And that's on a *good* day.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"