4 ms·
Excuse me, but USA pays a lot. But apparently due to some cost disease, we need to pay a lot more than other countries to achieve the same goal. There was a fas
by RestlessMind 9y ago
Excuse me, but USA pays a lot. But apparently due to some cost disease, we need to pay a lot more than other countries to achieve the same goal. There was a fascinating NYT article [1] about spiraling costs of NYC subway, but you can observe the same phenomenon in other places (defense spending, healthcare spending, California high speed rail etc).
So yeah, as a taxpayer, I will be super weary of approving any bond measure for infrastructure projects unless there is an ironclad proposal to control the costs.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...
- ryguytilidie 9y agoYeah, paying for BART in the bay area is like: property taxes go to BART. BART uses it to pay gate agents $150k+ and do no infrastructure improvements. Another measure goes on the ballot because BART desperately needs money to fix infra. Bond is approved. BART employees strike for more money, get it. Infra improvements never happen. I guess we gotta pay those gate agents the big bucks to stand there and watch people walk through the emergency exit gates instead of paying the fare. Seems like a six figure job to me!
- pishpash 9y agoOr, the 50%+ of the eligible people who don't vote, can vote, and do something about it. At current voting rates, every race is competitive.
- empthought 9y ago> BART uses it to pay gate agents $150k+ citation needed
- turc1656 9y agoHere's the data - the claim is not supported http://blog.vctr.me/bart/ http://blog.vctr.me/bart/ The raw, underlying data: https://github.com/enjalot/bart/blob/master/data/bart-comp-all.csv https://github.com/enjalot/bart/blob/master/data/bart-comp-a... Throwing this into Excel I see only around 15 employees who are in lower level positions that are anywhere near this compensation level. That being said, they do exist, and it's usually due to significant OT. Also, infuriating things like this exist but they are the exception, not the rule: https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/01/bart-janitor-grossed-270k-in-pay-and-benefits-last-year/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/01/bart-janitor-grossed-...
- empthought 9y agoI only see one "station agent" with compensation anywhere near that level and it is Antonette Bryant. The rest are in the 60k area.
- turc1656 9y agoI included total monetary compensation (base+OT=other) and looked at more positions. Station agent is directly in line with what OP said, but I was looking for others that were in lower positions yet making 6 figures. Either way, we agree that the claim is not supported in the general sense. Only a few outliers exist.