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| Re: NYC Rail networks—bursting at seams? (1352741) | |||
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Re: NYC Rail networks—bursting at seams? |
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Posted by Jackson Park B Train on Tue May 19 13:14:14 2015, in response to Re: NYC Rail networks—bursting at seams?, posted by Broadway Lion on Tue May 19 07:45:27 2015. citizen investors--those of us who vote for bond issues to be repaid from general or specific levies--fund transportation projects. The difference is that we expect the "dividends" to be a better place to live/work rather than quarterly checks. But, as you point out, the cost cannot be covered from the farebox, much as fuel tax alone does not cover the cost of the entire auto use infrastructure. So, again, the citizenry have chosen to subsidize both auto and transit use from general and special taxes (extra sales tax earmarked for highway and transit projects for example).Full farebox recovery including investments for long term maintenance would give us transit fares at nearly the current Federal hourly minimum wage. The idea that a worker should spend 2 of potentially 8 hours each day merely earning the cost of travel to/from work is economicinsanity. This is even worse for any of the "xero hours" workers who are becoming a majority of the 'service sector" workforce. Bottom line, the "standard of living" in the US has been eroding for all but a few specific segments of the society such that too much money is being accumulated by the 1% while the working class loses more purchasing ability. This is unsustainable. Either the overly rich will share voluntarily or we will revisit previous violent restructuring of national economies--never a pleasant business. |
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