If you want to complain about having to help foot the bill for other people’s health insurance in a universal system, you probably should not be overweight or a smoker or sedentary or involved in any other risky behaviors. Otherwise other people who are healthier will be helping to subsidize the care you will need. Likewise, those who don’t drive help pay the way for those who do, pitching in for infrastructure they don’t use. A collective is never completely even in every way, but it’s how we get things done. It’s the greater good.
But technology is making it easier for us to assess individual cost. A company called True Mileage enables states to install a box in every automobile that measures mileage. Those who drive the most will be taxed the highest. The opening of a Los Angeles Times story by Evan Halper about Washington State enacting such a plan:
“Washington — As America’s road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.
The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America’s major roads.
The usually dull arena of highway planning has suddenly spawned intense debate and colorful alliances. Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill.
The tea party is aghast. The American Civil Liberties Unionis deeply concerned, too, raising a variety of privacy issues.
And while Congress can’t agree on whether to proceed, several states are not waiting. They are exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they roll over. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, some of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive.”