Originally published at: Private jets make up nearly 20% of US flights but only pay for 2% of FAA funding | Boing Boing
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Imagine that, huh, that the FAA serves the rich and the Airlines while we pick up the tab and suffer the ill effects of noise and air pollution.
Imagine that
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In 2023, there are few more clear-cut indicators of moral depravity than full or fractional ownership in a private jet.
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Private jets are a mess, but…
The millions of electric cars expected on the roads soon won’t be paying any gas taxes to pay for those roads.
Not super-relevant to the private jet issue unless you’re trying to equate people who can afford to drive electric cars to private jet owners.
But yes, roads will need to be paid for and plenty of states are working on new tax systems to get electric car owners to pay their share. Some already have new taxes and fees in place for electric vehicles.
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And the drivers of gas vehicles aren’t spending anything extra for the costs incurred for increased health costs and environmental damage from their higher air pollution. Lack of current tax structure paying for highways is a more solvable issue than the climate crisis.
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In North Carolina they do. They are charged a flat $130 yearly when they renew their registration.
See the linked document and there is a picture of other states that have similar ways to recoup part of that cost. In NC some type of safety or emission check is required yearly, so it wouldn’t be a big deal to break it down straight to mileage driven, which makes it the same setup as fuel. The only difference is that you may be billed as a lump sum and I can tell you people lost their minds when we combined registration with vehicle tax. (If you don’t pay your taxes you can’t get your tags renewed…)
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In the interim- charge them an alternative minimum tax based upon airport usage- not per passenger charges etc.
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This is secondhand; but the answer to the question of not flying first class that was reported to me is “I don’t use public transportation.”
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Might as well put this here.
Until the NTSB completes its investigation, we won’t know for sure what led to Hyde’s death. But even if poorly designed automation and inadequate pilot training are found to have been at play, that doesn’t mean the finding will lead to any major changes. Aviation regulators accept different degrees of risk depending on the kind of flying that’s going on. The strictest rules apply to commercial airlines, where hundreds of lives may be at risk on every flight. For recreational aircraft that carry only one or two people, the regulations are quite relaxed. Private jets fall somewhere in between.
This shading of risk is why you’re far more likely to die on a millionaire’s jet or helicopter than in a seat in economy class. In the past 14 years, not a single passenger has died in a U.S. airline crash, but dozens die every year on chartered and private aircraft. Among the recent notable victims were Alaska senator Ted Stevens, billionaire Chris Cline, French businessman and politician Olivier Dassault, and basketball great Kobe Bryant.
If a private aircraft goes haywire once in a while and slams some of its passengers to death, that’s an outcome no one is happy about. But it’s not necessarily, from a regulatory perspective, an unacceptable risk.
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Wait… you seriously suggesting that the ONLY two choices are expensive electric cars or private jets? Like, that’s the ONLY two ways to get around? 
Because that’s not the case.
And plenty of states are looking to fill in the gaps of missing from people going electric, with @bcsizemo giving you on example…
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Using gas tax for road maintenence was always a Band-aid for funding that was never turned into a permanent solution.
If it’s good for everyone to have well-maintained roads (it is), then it should be funded from general taxes. Otherwise, it’s just a regressive tax on workers who tend to live far from their workplace due to the ridiculous cost of housing adjacent to where the most jobs are.
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Also, WTF does a road tax have to do with private jets… it’s almost like it’s meant to distract from the real topic here?
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Short history lesson here:
As Upton Sinclair pointed out in “The Jungle”, there was a very lethal human cost that went with the production of cheap meats for poor immigrants.
Every industry had (and still has) their own examples. The titans of industry have never been benevolent.
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Well maybe you should work harder at having been born to wealthy unscrupulous folks and having luck on top of that existing wealth so you too can afford to buy off the government.
Just make sure to work hard enough at those things to have enough money to fight off the other billionaires who worked hard at cheating and being lucky if you make anything slightly less comfortable for them or any harder to hoard a few more cents.
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