Kitao wrote:The illegal immigrants still pay a large amount toward the government in income tax,even if it is not under the name they were born under.
They may "pay" via withholdings, but often times a large portion of that money if not all of it is returned. The dirty little secret is that while they may not have a valid SSN, the IRS is usually more then happy to issue them an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number or ITIN. Using ITIN's they can file returns and while a SSN is a requirement for certain tax benefits like EIC, audits have found that often times ITIN's are used in lieu of SSN's on tax returns claiming EIC status and this is rarely stopped by the IRS.
The fact is that while illegals pay taxes many of them due to income bracket and the ability to file tax returns, receive a full refund.
As for the original post:
War - Not everything we are engaged in is centered around oil. For some the electric car might remove the incentive but it will do nothing to stabilize Iraq or make terrorists decide to throw in the towel. The idea that an electric car would remove the need for oil and by proxy war is laughable. While native crude may not be as refined as that found in the middle east, if the sole cause for war was oil the simple solution would be to tap our own oil here in the states. There are wells capped all over the country many capped due to governmental restrictions with the idea of something internal to fall back on.
Gas Prices -
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/price.html
When you look at that list consider the average income of those countries.
Illegal Immigration - electric cars would do nothing to fix the problem, your idea seems to be centered around pulling the petroleum jobs out from under people and regulating them to lower paying jobs (because you are putting them in competition with illegals who are more apt to accept a lower rate of pay). I'm not sure what jiffy lube pays over all, but I can tell you that people working in oil and gas fields at BP are making at least double the minimum wage. I'm quite sure these people aren't going to be content to start working for minimum wage or become unemployed because they can't be payed lower then that. The idea that electric cars would somehow correct illegal immigration is silly.
Global Warming - The biggest problem with global warming is that people take it as absolute fact requiring drastic measure. I'll keep it really simple for you Scatillac. Ever notice how the weatherman makes predictions for a few days? Ever try to find a local weather prediction a few months out? Why would you accept global temperature predictions decades into the future as absolute fact but would find a weatherman telling you what local weather you will have next July 4th laughable? If you want to talk about air and water pollution in a non catrastophizing rational context then a major push and speedy switch over to solar power based vehicles becomes a bit like burning your house down to kill a spider you found in your bed.