Civilized Spending

We got used to gasoline over two dollars a gallon and only really complained when it exceeded four. Why don’t we do like most civilized nations and put a one dollar a gallon tax on fuels? Also repeal tax breaks of Trump that benefit the richest Americans. This would recover much of the trillions that he gave to the financial corporations.

The billions generated by this tax could be used to create the mass transit system that we need to further reduce our use of fossil fuels and meet our global warming goals. Follow the example of Switzerland and use our Postal Service and letter carriers to extend our mass transit system to every community. Like the Swiss postal service, ours once transported people as well as mail on the Butterfield and Wells Fargo stage systems. Postal trucks go into every community.

There would also be plenty of revenue to fix the levees and bridges and invest in new solar, wind, and sea energy systems. We could use some to put millions to work thinning our national forests so that future fire seasons are not so terrifying.

Halt the Bechtel wall between our country and Mexico and instead spend the billions on microloans to small enterprises in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, especially agricultural cooperatives.

The solution to our immigration problems is not on the border but in the countries of origin where the poor cannot find enough to survive. Combine these microloans with an end to U.S. farm subsidies.