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Gary: That is essentially true. I think their inclusion of "aircraft" in the sentence shows they don't know the difference between freight value and freight tonnage. A huge percentage of freight value moves by air, but the effects of that freight on the highway and rail infrastructure is almost nil. Greyhounds: I'm suprised to see you advance this argument. Your other posts show great awareness of complexity. You would propose that all the intermodal traffic reaching Chicago should simply be rubbered from one side to another, each truck paying a fuel tax that is penny or so on the dollar of its actual use of roadway resources, and that the air pollution and subsequent impact on everyone else's health care, building maintenance costs, etc., should be foisted onto the people paying for the health care and building maintenance? Is there ANY government expenditure you think justified? National defense -- shouldn't that be paid for in user fees, too? I realize that your insistence on belittling those who disagree with you by calling it "gubermint" means you're probably not open to different opinions, but I'll give you the benefit of any doubt. I agree, in the long run, the free market will work just fine. Traffic and pollution will drive people out of Chicago, real estate prices will collapse, and the railroads will find it easy to build connections across the deserted land once occupied by a thriving metropolis. The loss of wealth will be enormous, the loss of productivity will be enormous, but measured against the threat to a sacred ideology, a trillion dollars here or there seems a cheap price indeed. My friend, I don't like the abuse of the free market by people using the government to extract money from my wallet to put in their wallet any more than you do -- and I spend a lot of time in my job analyzing the negative (and sometimes positive) effects of subsidy, regulation, and taxation, but in my view, the whole point of life isn't to erect a shrine to the free market, it's to be happy, healthy, free of sin, and free of fear -- you know, the preface to the U.S. Constitution. The free market isn't the end we seek, it's a means to our end. OS
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