Oh, don’t worry, it’s very egalitarian and big brother won’t ever misuse it.
Statists can always be counted on to think up new ways to deprive you of your liberty, while insisting that they’re just doing you a favor. They’re very upfront in trying to herd people onto mass transit, while those who can afford the extra tax can drive on emptier roads. This is how the neo-aristocracy thinks, just as the Communist nomenklatura before them, and the aristocracy of old before advent of the industrial revolution.
NOTE: They loathe free-market capitalism that creates upward mobility, as much as they loathe actual mobility on the roads.
The national daily Helsingin Sanomat runs a main article on the proposed mileage tax that will replace purchase taxes on cars in the coming decade. The piece includes an expert Q&A on the issue. According to the expert, tax revenue is unlikely to alter, but the burden will shift towards those who use their cars more often. City-dwellers will be taxed at a higher rate than rural populations who have fewer alternatives and longer distances to travel and the proposed system would be monitored by a satellite positioning system. Key results of the tax would be that new car prices would fall, as would traffic levels, but the mileage based tax is not expected to come into use earlier than 2020.
