[consteval]

The government deciding how to use tax money is not authoritarian. Making people and companies responsible for eating the cost of automobiles isn't authoritarian either, if anything I'd say it's the opposite.

A big part of the reason why automobiles are so successful is that the cost are externalized. If oil companies and automobile manufacturers were forced to pay the cost of climate degradation they'd starve. But they're essentially on a type of welfare - where the people, and gov, eat those costs instead.

If we're playing welfare anyway, we might as well use it for public transit. And, as an aside, climate change is a real thing. It's not even up for debate. And yes, in order to solve a problem, you need policies. The "try nothing and hope it works" approach has been our approach forever and surprise! It doesn't work.

[chrisco255]

People do eat the cost of automobiles, what are you talking about? There is a federal gas tax, there are toll roads, there are property taxes, there are license and registration fees, there are even speeding fines, parking fines, etc etc. Cars also have an extremely positive impact on economic activity. They've enriched the lives of people, empower them to live in more affordable locations with higher standards of living, get access to goods shipped in from outside the state and outside the country at cheap prices, get access to overnight delivery on any food, product, or service, access to alternative schooling, medical care, ambulance services, fire rescue, police coverage, etc. etc.

The climate has not degraded, it has warmed slightly. It is not even as hot today as it was in the early Holocene. The earth has actually greened from the CO2 fertilization affect, increasing the leaf area index on one quarter to one half of earth's surface over the past 35 years (https://www.nasa.gov/technology/carbon-dioxide-fertilization...).

There are far less deaths from natural disasters today than there was 100 years ago (in large part thanks to automobiles enabling people to evacuate and emergency responders to be activated).

Welfare is paid for by the same tax payers that are paying for gas tax, property tax, income taxes, etc. By no means should they be forced into some ideologue's vision for how "a perfect society" should work.

[consteval]

Yes exactly. People, you and me, eat the cost of automobiles. NOT the automobile manufacturers or the oil industry. We take most of the cost, they've externalized it to us, i.e. they are on welfare. Just in a roundabout way.

If you put those costs on them instead of us, they would be in very hot water. And they may be motivated to change their business practices.

And I won't comment on the urgency or scale of the global climate. It's not worth an argument.