The Many Ways Bad Policy Worsens Your Daily Commute

Colin GrabowOne of the least enjoyable aspects of working is the process of actually getting to work. For nearly 85 percent of Americans, that means driving a car, truck, or some other vehicle an average of27.6 minutes each way. That compares to an average of25 minutes in the European Union and represents nearly an hour of each day that is mostly wasted. Millions more Americans, meanwhile, are stuck using mass transit systems that are unnecessarily costly, slow (average one-way bus commute time:46.6 minutes), or unreliable. The country can do better. As I explain in the new Cato Institute bookEmpowering the New American Worker: Market ‐​based Solutions for Today’s Workforce, while commuting may be an unfortunate reality of working life, changes to public policy —including trade policy—can help ease this burden for American workers.The pain of commuting begins with obtaining the means to get to work —some kind of vehicle for most people—and that’s not cheap. The average price of a new subcompact car currently runsover $23,000 and things only get more expensive from there. Such prices are partly due to tariffs on autos and auto parts. Although typically modest at 2.5 percent, such duties can spike as high as 25 percent for light trucks —the infamous “chicken tax”. Tariffs on inputs such as steel and aluminum also exert upward pressure while imported tires from several Asian countries are subject to duties that can reach over100 percent.Other government pol...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs