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SpongeBob
Advanced Member
USA
679 Posts |
 Posted - 11/20/2012 : 17:51:05
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In honor of the launch of the new toll roads, I thought I'd return to Slug-lines long enough to bless you all (sic) with some thoughts on Why Toll Roads Suck.
Most of the readers on here already get this, but I'm sure there are a few lurkers and spies, so this is for them, mostly.
A toll road is a regressive tax on the most humble citizens. Everyone pays the same rate to use the road (yes, yes, commercial users and big rigs might be charged more.) But a limousine pays the exact same charge as the old heap carrying a janitor to work. If the cost is $5 each way, do you think the CEO cares about that amount of money being withdrawn from his account? Of course not. Meanwhile, the janitor actually has to work the first 1/2 hour of the day just to pay for driving on that public road. Imagine if we charged the CEO a comparable 1/2-hour rate.
A toll road is just a clever way for the rich to pay less into our commonwealth and for the poor to pay more.
This sucks. Do I really have to explain why it works this way?
(It would be because the conservatives won the war of ideas in the 1980's so that their Ayn Rand approach to their fellow humans has become the New Normal.) |
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SpongeBob
Advanced Member
USA
679 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2014 : 12:09:23
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Bumpity.
Nothing I asserted here two years ago is any less true. I am waiting with bated breath to hear the screams from the people when they realize just what a sh*tty deal they've been served. I used to think you'd see this issue all over the WashPost, but they have drifted so far to the right that I'm not sure where it will get any coverage.
Oh, well. Only a couple of years to go and we're off for the beach. |
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USA
Advanced Member
296 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2014 : 11:02:51
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| Hmm, I was unaware the (Democrat) Kaine Administration (which spearheaded the HO/T lanes) was so "conservative." |
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goober
Senior Member Member
181 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2014 : 16:33:10
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| The promotion of HOT lanes is clearly a liberal response to "what has the government done for me lately" |
Edited by - goober on 11/12/2014 16:33:45 |
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SpongeBob
Advanced Member
USA
679 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2014 : 11:44:49
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The underlying financial concept of the variable-cost toll road is absolutely a neo-conservative approach, not D in the least. The money-worshiping anti-government shibboleth of "public-private partnerships," overlaid with the greed-based veneer of "pay-as-you-use," was constructed out of whole cloth by the right, and centrist D's bought into it because they're weak-kneed failures.
Variable tolling of a major state commuter route is a regressive tax that hurts the poor much more than the well-off, privatizes and profitizes our transportation network, and is Morally Wrong. |
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Why Toll Roads Suck
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