Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

That vehicle will soon be a vehicle of the past...

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Which one is that?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I'm not familiar with Wisconsin politics, but there is some reasoning behind increasing licensing fees for EVs. Road maintenance is funded through fuel taxes. The fuel taxes are not (yet) levied on electricity. If the EVs are to take over a significant fraction of the population of vehicles using the roads, then maintenance costs have to be expanded to cover the EVs somehow. There has been discussion of increasing licensing fees for hybrid vehicles also since their increased gas mileage dilutes their contribution to road maintenance costs.

I wouldn't be surprised if they required EV chargers to run off a separate line and get charged a separate rate. That would put some of the responsibility to collect taxes on the electric utilities, and they would take a cut also for their trouble.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

Who and when is "a long time ago we decided" The way you present your points of view would lead one to believe that you consider yourself one of those "experts". I don't recall ever voting to give anyone that kind of authority and our constitution was specifically written to limit the federal government to things like defense, foreign affairs and interstate commerce. The 10th amendment specifically states that if it's not mentioned in the constitution it falls to the states or the people.

You obviously are not a fan of a free-market economy and prefer a socialist form of government where the government decides what's best for us. Free market economics has done more to raise the world out of poverty than any other system. Socialism has failed every time it has been tried and it has been tried a lot. No system is perfect but capitalism has by far the best record when everyone acts in their own self interest.

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

Totally Agree, NO REWARDS including federal government subsidies and tax breaks for EV's, Battery plants, solar farms and other construction projects, they should advance on their own merits. Local officials want to subsidize, they have the option since its locally controlled...However, the other side of that coin is the EV drivers pay no gas tax and still have the same or more, impact on the roads. Besides, maybe that tax is the state getting back some of the taxpayer subsidies that the government GIVES to EV buyers....Cheers!

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

Not to mention that it was the government hired "experts" like Fauci and the NIH, to name a few, who morphed into permanent government "bureaucrats" and quite frankly lost all credibility and should no longer have been considered experts. If the government wants experts, so easy to contract with them, there are more than enough scientific labs, corporations, organizations, universities that have the expertise needed rather than hiring so-called experts who then become bureaucrats.

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

They were born into a generally more socialist system and are accustomed to the concept of redistribution of personal wealth. They also do not have a mainstream press constantly echoing mantras of racial division on which the Left depends. (Compare the number of references to race in both the GOP and Dem platforms.)

A proper discussion among proponents of the Need to Protect Life vs the Right to Kill the Unborn is too deep for this forum. Besides, the degree of both open-mindedness and an understanding of human development needed for such a debate are all but absent among the latter group. If it were not so, it would cease to be an issue.

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

MauiMoto Loc: Hawaii

The motive behind the climate agenda is a malevolent monopoly of every resource on the planet. The carbon that they want to eliminate is us. We are comprised of more than 25% of the hydrocarbon cholesterol, c27h46o. Our brain, at least some of us, is more than half cholesterol and every cell in every living thing is built from carbon molecules from co2. Plants combine 6 molecules of h2o and 6 co2 molecules and make a hydrated carbon molecule c6h12o6 also known as sugar and release the 6 o2 molecules separated from the carbon atoms. There cannot be too much co2 unless all the plants are eliminated. We need to at least double the current co2 level to end the monsanto/bayer monopoly on food. Also, the co2 level follows the heat, not the other way around, the whole thing is a banker scam that gained steam in the 70s with maurice strong, Rockefeller (un treasurer) and the Trilateral commission. 20th century eugenics originated with the Rockefellers not the Nazis as we were told. If you want to understand how so many people can be sold such idiocy like covid or climate change, look into Edward Bernays and the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations which was Wellington House, mi6 prior to ww2 and created all the propaganda(social engineering) agencies like cia, Mossad, kgb etc. after ww2. Always follow the money.

MauiMoto Loc: Hawaii

I have also heard of occupants burning or suffocating in EVs because the doors are electronic. So when there is a failure the doors cannot open.
I also know a tow truck company that won't touch them because they're so dangerous. Another who will only take it somewhere other than their storage lot.
I watched automobiles go from easy to repair to only repairable with specialized expensive equipment to warnings of death if you touch something.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

I feel your frustration with how government operates. I think you underestimate the free market vs experts concept. "Experts" are limited in the breadth of their knowledge to specific fields. There are very few Leonardos among us. No matter how many experts you assemble from universities, private sector, NGOs, etc. they can not compete with the free market. The free market is open to anyone who has any knowledge on a specific subject who offer their skills for a price and are in competition with others with similar skills. Literally millions of transactions of this sort happen every day where the output is products which meet all of the specification as the lowest price. It also includes knowledge that has been gained over thousands of years so it also takes into account, traditions, jurisprudence, lore and other sources.

This concept is being demonstrated to us right now by the space industry. NASA was created to be the government experts. NASA has built rockets that took us to earth orbit, the moon and all of the planets in our solar system and has spent billions of dollars doing so and several years to develop. Private industries like SpaceX are developing far cheaper, reusable vehicles which dramatically lowering the cost per pound to put something into orbit. NASA's future role should be to implement space policy and the private sector will supply the resources and labor to make these policies reality. And SpaceX already has quite a lineup of competitors. NASA launches space vehicles every couple of months, the private sector is launching vehicles weekly. SpaceX has a parking lot full of launch vehicles which can be prepared for flight in days.

MauiMoto Loc: Hawaii

These people believe that they are better than the rest of us. I forget who said this in public speaking for this this wealthy elites, he proposed, something besides just taxes that the peasants must justify their existence to the state on why they should be allowed to live another year.

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

CORRECT, I totally agree with your analysis, the private sector is much better suited to do much of what government does, far more efficiently. BTW, looks like SpaceX wants to double last year’s launch numbers, an excellent goal. As for weekly? It’s almost daily, I watch them every time they launch at Canaveral….Cheers

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

A lot of strong opinions here! Here’s mine:

Yes capitalism is the most effective way for people to extricate themselves from poverty. Look at China. Their standard of living has gone up tremendously. Yes they still have a Communist federal government, but they’ve had to let regular people practice capitalism.

Europeans are happier than Americans are. Compared to what? Pretty hard to compare without having been on the other side.

I was married to a woman from Australia for a short time. What they call democracy we call socialism. Their democracy has no Bill of Rights like we do. That’s how their government was able to take away and prevent citizens from owning guns. And if you didn’t turn your weapons in, you faced prison time. There was no letting the people vote on gun ownership, some politicians made that decision on their own and to hell with what the public wanted.

Her son and I had some very in depth discussions on how our governments differed. Something I’ve never forgotten was when he said, “Your Bill of Rights is to keep your government from taking over. We don’t have anything like that.”

His mother and I were watching the local news. It showed some neo-Nazis peacefully marching in Jefferson City MO and a bunch of protesters jumped some of them and were arrested by the police. She couldn’t believe the cops arrested the “good guys” and let the bad guys go on with their parade. I explained that our first amendment guarantees freedom of speech even if the people or the cops don’t like what they say. The marchers had obtained the necessary permits and were being peaceful, hence the first amendment worked like it was supposed to.

So it’s hard to say that Europeans are happier than we are because they don’t know what it’s like here. Sweden is a socialist government with free higher education, free healthcare and so on. My buddy’s cousin runs a furniture factory in Sweden and the government takes 90% of his wages. Not a lot of incentive to work harder and earn more money if the government takes most of it to support the lazy deadbeats who know they are going to get the same services without working as those that do work.

MauiMoto Loc: Hawaii

For lack of knowledge my people are destroyed. Rockefeller eugenics has literally convinced humanity commit suicide so they can have the planet for themselves.