2 years ago

271

Sam Seder libertarian Sam Seder gas tax gas taxes gas tax taxes Majority Report Majority

Sam Seder is debunked on his gas taxes take when looking at Canada as well as the American Windfall Tax.
Hi everyone, I had just been vacationing in Canada for the past few weeks so haven’t been posting much on either Youtube or twitter. But this video of Sam Seder came to my attention on a libertarian policy in Alberta Canada from a Canadian Caller. While in Canada, I made a video response to this on my phone, but the audio quality was horrible so I unlisted it, especially after valid criticism from both aisles of the political spectrum. So I’m extremely sorry about that. So here’s a redo. Anyway, let’s here what Sam says.
Me: So what he's talking about is the Premier of Alberta concerned about price fixing after taking away the gas tax of 13 cents per litre, AKA the gas tax holiday. This proposal was in response to high gas prices and while there was a benefit for Albertans initially relative to even other Canadian provinces, gas prices have risen again for Alberta. Hence, Albertans appear to no longer benefit from the tax cut. As a consequence, the Premier Jason Kenney has gone to the Competition Bureau since he believes there is a possibility of price collusion which is illegal and is trying to find out how to interfere under the Consumer Protection Act. However, what Sam's Canadian caller doesn't tell you about is that gas prices rise and fall for a multitude of factors that doesn't have to do with price gouging, monopoly power or so-called corporate greed. For instance, according to economist Trevor Tombe the tax reduction in diesel is still being passed to consumers as a benefit. So it is unlikely to be a lack of competition or greed.

Me: Well, it did go down temporarily for Alberta as I mentioned before and diesel still fell so there does seem to still be a decent relation between tax and price. Anyway, the cause for why gas prices are still high is unknown for now. But Tombe has theorised that a potentially plausible problem is a shortage of ethanol which is blended with gasoline. Such a shortage raises the cost of ethanol, thus raising business costs for gas stations, and these cost rises are passed onto the consumer. There are are a multitude of other possible factors that go into gas prices as the sector is an extremely volatile market. Not to mention that its pretty competitive as drivers have alternatives, and retail markets know this so will price accordingly. Other factors could be Alberta-specific cost increases or interest rate hikes. If you think Seder has horrible takes but see very few people criticizing him, follow a new subreddit I created called SamSederFails, where we critique his arguments, promote response videos and other material related to him. Feel free to join.

Sources:
Original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AnqHTcgJ0Q
CBC Article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenney-fuel-taxes-competition-bureau-1.6529881
Calgary Herald Article:
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/gas-prices-in-calgary-dropping-most-of-tax-break-being-passed-on-says-economist
Windfall Tax Study:
https://www.sonecon.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/windfall_1105.pdf
Business Insider Article:
https://www.businessinsider.com/gas-prices-big-oil-profits-taxed-for-rebate-checks-opinion-2022-5?r=US&IR=T
Congressional Research Service Study:
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL34689
Unlisted Video:
https://youtu.be/1PKOT52yzQw