Transport Minister Pierluigi Bersani and representatives of truckers' unions signed an accord in the early hours of the morning. Italian politicians see that it is more important for the trucks to roll than for a few marginal bureaucratic heads not to roll. They get the message. The recent economic recovery in Europe has increased demand for leisure time, which is that rarest of consumer goods, an untaxed commodity. One result has been an increase in travel, and this has led to Europe s fuel tax crisis.
All taxes transfer resources from the private sector to the public sector.
Each form of tax has a different market-distorting effect. But these are local taxes. A fuel tax that generates revenues that are used exclusively to fund roads is the least distorting of all the state and nationally imposed taxes, since the primary users of the government-supplied roads are the ones who pay the tax. Roads at least have the advantage of being more useful to more voters than most other government-subsidized projects. There is less wealth-redistribution with a gasoline tax.