Emissions tests are a poverty tax that play a strong role in punishing people trying to buy affordable old cars and either pushing the demand curve for new cars, or pushing poor people into illegality or carlessness.
I recently took a trip to Seattle and the light-rail was so cool. You could walk anywhere, without even the need for a bike or scooter. And I'm someone who usually never leaves bed so that was a surprise for me.
Under current economic conditions almost any tax that doesn't explicitly target high earners and high net worth individuals is a poverty tax. Fixing economic inequality is the appropriate place to deal with this problem, not reasonable taxes like emissions tests.
Literally. I'm sure the purpose of all these regulations (including the EU banning petrol cars) is that in a few decades poor people won't allowed to drive their own cars.
