Word: guzzler
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...expensive weapons systems. Before confronting Saddam Hussein's forces, the $1.1 million Bradley fighting vehicle had been derided as a firetrap that left its underprotected three-member crew vulnerable to a fiery death from an enemy hit. The $3.2 million M1A1 Abrams tank was criticized as an overpriced gas-guzzler prone to mechanical breakdowns. The $11.7 million Apache was depicted as difficult to maintain in a desert. The Patriot was just another overpriced antiaircraft weapon never tested against missiles in combat. But now, says Gordon Adams, director of the independent Defense Budget Project, "defense contractors all say the war proved...
Adjustments of the tax codes are usually better than regulations as a way to discourage polluting or wasteful practices and to reward efficiency. If a person wants to drive a gas guzzler, it makes sense for him to pay higher gas and sales taxes. Farmers would quickly look for alternatives to chemical pesticides if they were taxed according to the cost of cleaning them out of the environment. Regulations are most useful as a last resort for dealing with problems, such as nuclear waste, that are too dangerous to be left to the marketplace...