brockm
Active Member
This is getting pretty off topic, debating if transit should be funded at all.
Every city in the developed world funds the transit system, and some very basic economic literacy makes clear why. The reason every city funds transit is that it makes economic sense to do so as travel patterns generate large externalities. Externalities are costs borne by society that are not reflected in the operation costs or benefits to the user. Pollution and congestion are two big negative externalities of commuting by car. If you take transit, you don't get any direct benefit from the congestion that you have relived or the pollution that you have prevented. These accrue to the entire society. The entire society balances this by using government to discount each transit ride.
With all due respect, I don't believe I'm lacking in economic literacy. And I'm familiar in great detail, with the Keynesian economic theories that drive your opinions, from Maynard Keynes himself all the way up to his modern flag-bearer Paul Krugman. It so happens that I believe that Keynesian economics have been a general disaster for developed countries, and I believe the next decade is going to be an extremely turbulent period that will bring a lot of the imbalances brought about by these polices -- that everyone so proudly endorses -- back into balance in a drawn out and painful affair.
Many world governments are reaching the limits of fiscal imbalance, before debt levels create untenable inflation and the complete seizure of international trade with some nations. Especially the United States, and the United Kingdom. These are two nations, whose projected debt over the next decade will exceed the entire value of their economy.
I don't agree that a transit system cannot be run revenue neutral. I believe the problem is best described in the dilemmas laid out by Public Choice Theory; the prices "need" subsidy for political, not economic reasons. And they're probably more subsidized than they need to be for political reasons.
Last edited: