Should the government increase spending on public transportation?
No, and we should privatize more public transportation services
(This is long, but I'm not really trying to change your opinion on this. It doesn't matter what you think, I actively work on transportation in life, so my opinion will not just stay as an idle opinion on the internet) If we take lessons from history, I'm taking the time when public transit was largely privatized, then we will see that this will, probably, lead to nothing good. An example most transit enthuists know of is the Los Angeles streetcar, although I am going to explaining more than most people understand it. LA was once the city with the largest interurban streetcar system in the world, and this was run by a private company. The private company, Pacifific Electric/LARY, built these streetcar lines out for the pure intrest of profit, and running a streetcar was not and is not profitable. They made money by building out the lines and selling the real estate because the streetcar drastically increased property value. The people were as reliant with the streetcar, or more often nicknamed the red car, as they are with the automobile now. Like the big railroads of the time, they were also big infuencers on politics, this time with town hall not capital hill. They were nitourious for bribing city officals and corrupting local governments, as such the people resented them and they were eager when the ford model T became widely avaiable to switch over to gain freedom from the streetcar. Pacific Electric/LARY as such, lost heavy amounts of profit. The thought of subsidizing the streetcar though, was unpopular, and they ended up closing a lot of lines as they fell into deeper disrepair than they had already left them in too keep profits rolling. They planned to switch to buses before WW2, but the rubber shortage made them halt. Then General Motors bought up the companies and replaced the final lines with buses. This has given a lot of people the false consiparcy that GM killed the streetcar, they also did this in many other cities with their streetcar lines, but in reality, the nature of private businesses do not lend well to public utility. The only reason any privart public transportation companies exist in america now is because of government subsides. In an entirely free market system, public transit would not survive. Although if an entirely free market system existed than there wouldn't have been the development of the transcontinetal railways, the era of the freeway, and modern america as we know it. Maybe government bonds are Read more
@99G6J3L10mos10MO
well if the government isn't going to do anything about then we should, its time we take advantage of how the government refuses to regulate some aspects of our market that have resulted in harm