Andy Choy's Non Sequitur

I just read a news article about rolling back the oil subsidies. As a firm believer in free market economics, I applaud any effort to reduce subsidies. Now some people may say that this measure will increase the price of gasoline to the consumer. While this statement is probably true, what the critics seem to be forgetting is that removing the subsidy should refund even more than that amount back to tax payers (subsidy amount plus administrative cost of running the subsidy). The winners should be the people in the highest tax bracket (who should get a disproportional share of the tax refund since they paid a disproportional share of the original taxes that provided the subsidy) and people who don't use a lot of gas. For full disclaimer, I'm currently in the latter category and hope to be in the former category one of these days. All this being said, I doubt the Democrats are going to issue tax refunds with the savings but that's a different argument altogether.

Oh yeah, the environmentalist in all of us also wins.

In general, I against government subsidies when there's no reason to believe a free market wouldn't provide effient results (click here to read my thoughts on stem cell research). Stay tuned for my blasting of, and subsequent support for, "free" public education....