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By Ted Mitchell (registered) | Posted December 11, 2009 at 14:38:20
I do not believe that road transportation should be in the realm of services where costs are borne by taxes relative to income (income and residential taxes). That's great for health care and schools and libraries where there is a clear net societal benefit, and I'm happy to pay my share and more.
But not for roads.
Ryan's all-you-can-eat buffet analogy is apt, except it is not for free. We pay for it, like communists, relative to our incomes, not our consumption.
I'll rephrase the analogy, recalling we're really talking about miles traveled here, not food.
So if you pay $5 for a sandwich, or $30 for a big meal it works for you. The problem is that when you pay $50 for a sandwich (like I do), it doesn't sit well. Especially when many others pay $3 for gorging themselves on multiple helpings such that others can't wait long enough to get the sandwich they've already paid for.
I'm happy to pay for a sandwich for those who can't afford to eat, i.e. subsidize public transit.
But I resent the gorgers, i.e. the SOV commuters, vanity truck drivers, and lazy bums who drive 2 km to work, often recklessly, for cheap on roads I'm heavily subsidizing. These gluttons need to cough up for their fair share, which is why we need more gas tax and tolls.
Our society is stronger when we help each other to be educated and healthy and free from want.
It is weaker when we facilitate each other to be gluttonous pricks in the name of freedom, i.e. endangering anyone smaller than you on the road, and everything that breathes.
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