Comment 70519

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted October 12, 2011 at 22:42:07

I appreciate the balanced shown in this article. It's important to differentiate between "improvements" brought about by LRT itself, and statistical improvements brought about by the replacement of poor populations with wealthier ones. Wealtheir individuals show huge differences in factors like health, employment and education - bringing in more well off people will cause and immediate local improvement, but on a larger scale it's a zero-sum-game. Those wealthy individuals must come from somewhere, and that place will be less wealthy as a result. Likewise, those poor people must go somewhere, and that place will inherit all the social problems which come with them.

The question is: how do we make sure the benefits are shared, and increase the general well-being, rather than just shuffling around the well-being which currently exists? LRT can be a very potent instrument here, but only if we see beyond property values and development potential.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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