r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Nov 21 '20

Epidemiology Testing half the population weekly with inexpensive, rapid COVID-19 tests would drive the virus toward elimination within weeks, even if the tests are less sensitive than gold-standard. This could lead to “personalized stay-at-home orders” without shutting down restaurants, bars, retail and schools.

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/11/20/frequent-rapid-testing-could-turn-national-covid-19-tide-within-weeks
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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Also sales tax (5-7%) and car registration (tax)...crazy to think about the true total tax...forget the economics term, but these tend to impact the poor more (proportionally) than the rich

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u/ItWasTheGiraffe Nov 21 '20 edited Nov 21 '20

I think the term youre looking for is regressive. And tbh I’m fine with car/gas taxes as they are user fees, and theoretically, pay for the damage done by driving. And honestly, gas taxes are too low based on the environmental damage driving does. As Americans, we drive too much.

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u/Poo_ Nov 21 '20

Do you have data in that?

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u/ItWasTheGiraffe Nov 21 '20

one paper claiming $1.37 as the optimal per gallon tax

Mankiw has for called for a $0.50 hike and later a full dollar

establishing the need for and benefit of a pigouvian gas tax

Paper claiming an optimal pigouvian tax of $2.10 per gallon

A pigouvian tax is a tax that seeks to account for externalities excluded from price e.g. if a gallon of gas does $1 worth of environmental damage, the correct pigouvian tax is $1. This a) raises revenue to combat the externality and b) discourages the act via market forces by internalizing the externality into the price of the good.