Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="henry6"] It is apparent we have three views: don't subsidize trains, subsidize trains, don't understand what subsidizing is all about.  The only one's who will change their minds are the latter and they will eventually, when understanding, drift to one or the other of the two former.  What has to be understood is how all governments deal with transportation and define "subsidy".  If you subscribe to the concept that traffic cops, canal locks and waterways,  airports, highways and roadways, air traffic controllers, passenger trains, bus stations, are all the same when it comes to subsidies, then you can move forward with a rational and intermodal transportation system in an efficient and hopefully intelligent manor.  If you deny any one of those items as subsidy, then you will continue with the system we have now for whatever it is and it is worth. [/quote] Part of the problem with subsidies lies in the definition of subsidy. The biggest problem, however, is the distortion of the pricing mechanism caused by subsidies.  When people don't know what an item or service costs, as reflected in the pricing mechanism, they tend to make sub-optimum choices. Prior to the opening of the Texas electric utility market to competition, the rates for residential customers were subsidized by commercial and industrial users. This kept the residential price artificially low, which resulted in their using more electricity, with a variety of attendant downside consequences, than otherwise would have been the case.  Once the market was opened to competition, the argument against subsidies was shown to be valid.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag