Camino LS6

How so? It would disproportionately affect lower income drivers. Imagine the pizza-delivery guy, or the girl that delivers the morning paper, or the guy with a uniform rental business... So drive less, carpool more and/or take public transit...things lower income earners already do. You don't have to drive everywhere in a car by yourself. This kind of a user fee system affects drivers, based on how much they "consume" regardless of income. And does that not confirm the idea's status as "regressive"?

I think I'm looking for something other than the two extremes. Just gave myself the wikipedia short course in "Islamic Bamking" and "Full Reserve Banking". I found both wanting.

This could be worth looking into as well. Good tip, thanks.

Loki, your post raises some good questions in my mind. Would country "X" have a central bank? How would it issue currency? Would the currency be backed by real assets, or not? Would country "X" have legally binding balanced budget provision in its constitution? Lots to think about there.

if it a tool for consumption(investment) decisions and it is taken away, this would lead to less entrepreneurship, or poorer quality... this would lead to lower productivity and generally make the society poorer than it might otherwise be. what think you? I think there are some big assumptions in your conclusion, but this bit interests me: "The Austrian School sees time as the root of uncertainty within economics."

How so? It would disproportionately affect lower income drivers. Imagine the pizza-delivery guy, or the girl that delivers the morning paper, or the guy with a uniform rental business...

Thanks for the input so far! Please continue, but don't restrict yourself to thinking of this in terms of the USA. Just call it country "X".

A sample of what I'm looking for: At first blush, you'd think that there wouldn't be any banks. But that's probably not the case, they'd just be different. You'd pay them a fee for safe storage of valuables, and likley a fee to send money, etc. I'm interested in small stuff as well as big under this premise.

Olds' post got me thinking, and I was going to say that you could couch your answers in terms of any political or social system, but the better way may be to answer in general terms that would apply to whatever system might be in place. That way, it would get to the heart of things immediately. In other words, what would such a reality require of a society?

OK, but that doesn't tell me what this society might be like. I'm sort of looking for a "day in the life" picture here.

Taking a page from the Left, wouldn't such a plan be considered "regressive"?

That's interesting, and a source of some info. I wasn't aware of...

I hear those wheels turning now!

*NOTE* : Please don't make this political, I really want some input on this and I can't get that if the thread gets locked. What I'm looking for here is a bit of brainstorming on a concept I've been thinking about. I'm not sure where it will lead me yet, but I want to hear some reactions. Imagine a society in which all forms of lending for profit are illegal, and the law is strictly enforced. Investment would be legal as would interest-free loans, as in "hey, can I borrow five bucks 'til payday?". What I'm interested in is what this society would be like. How would it work? What would be the unintended consequences? How would social norms be affected? Just, well, everything. Picture it for me.

Somehow I don't see you tolerating the CR-V for very long.

Not a freakout, just a staking-out of position. And no, my use of public roads does not justify the government keeping track of my travels. Far too intrusive.

Ugh. I'm very tired of having my life watched, regulated, reported, managed, classified, etc. by others. Piss-off and leave me alone!

Happy belated, Lamar - hope you had a great one.

Replied to. I will be hard to reach until evening at this point.

*self-serving bump*

...off to the service dept.

Thanks guys! I went over to elcaminocentral.com and posted about how to comment on jalopnik there too. ECC has thousands of members, so that should get things moving.

I see XLRs (including Vs), regularly around here.

Excellent!

They sure are now, but when I was a kid a local oil company had a whole fleet of them... in black! They kept them perfect - always squeaky clean.