With rare exceptions, they have scarcely stalled, much less reversed, the momentum of urban sprawl. Market forces have generally tugged in another direction, and the schemes have not rested on additional, more basic platforms of public policy. The relative merits of these fundamentals, some of them common in European countries, need to be examined. In doing so, moreover, possibilities that are conventionally regarded as infeasible in the context of U.S. politics wall not nec- essarily be excluded. What, if anything, the foreigners have to teach may be of interest precisely because it differs from the American way.
Tax Reform Ranking high is the matter of tax policy.
Were it not for their often excessive rates, European tax structures hold some desirable fea- tures that the U.S. system lacks most notably, a greater emphasis on taxing consumption. By international standards, U.S. levies on motor vehicles anct gasoline, for instance, are de . . As noted earlier, this mix has helped stimulate the drift of pop- ulation from central cities to suburbs. Life in the suburbs will mean owning several vehicles and driving them more, but this extravagance is so lightly taxed it scarcely matters to us. A tax policy that influences consumer decisions in this fashion is steering capital into particular sectors by Averting it, perhaps inordinately, from others.