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Agree. In general, administrators want fees for public services to prevent overuse that causes high costs for taxpayers, i.e. Hypochondriacs visiting hospitals
by dilemma 10y ago
Agree. In general, administrators want fees for public services to prevent overuse that causes high costs for taxpayers, i.e. Hypochondriacs visiting hospitals once per week.
But for public transportation, that doesn't apply. You cannot overuse public transportation. People have jobs - they don't decide to ride the subway for ten hours per day just because its free of charge. At most, they can take the subway instead of biking or walking and there's no harm in that.
Public transportation should be seen as an extension of the sidewalk, free to access and traverse for anyone that has a place they need to be.
- waqf 10y agoPerhaps this is just me, but I would much, much sooner ride free public transportation in my spare time than check myself into a free hospital. Moreover, hospitals really ought to be a perfect example of a thing that's harmless to offer in excess and hence can be made a free public good. All it takes is for the triage process to do a correct Bayesian evaluation of your medical history — that is, to take note of the fact that you are known to have shown up at hospital every week and nothing has ever been found to be wrong — and then treat you only for what you are likely to have.