5 ms·

For a completely private airport that builds its own road and transit infrastructure, sure. Most real airports have massive public investment and infrastructure

For a completely private airport that builds its own road and transit infrastructure, sure. Most real airports have massive public investment and infrastructure and enjoy a strong local monopoly - with the specific purpose of acting like a public transportation hub. Therefore, any charge that moves from services provided, on a needs basis, to an indiscriminate tax, on a per person basis, can be seen as onerous in light of the public investment.

CPLX 9y ago
But if there's a precedent that people landing in the airport and renting cars pay a tax why should some companies be able to avoid it and not others. This argument is nonsensical.
- cornholio 9y ago
  Because the new players don't need the services airports provide. Which turns into a tax or a monopoly rent, there is a long a list of such "precedents" that the market and regulators shut down.
  - CPLX 9y ago
    If they don't need the service the airport provides they can meet people arriving on planes somewhere that's not an airport. Otherwise it seems to me that they need the service the airport provides.
    - michaelmrose 9y ago
      The service the airport provides is the fact that lots of people are there. In other news if I meet you in starbucks to buy a laptop from craigslist they aren't getting a cut. If they meet the car at Walmart do we expect the walton family to get a cut? If they drop the car off at their home do we expect the HOA to get a cut? At some point we could acknowledge that the airport isn't a party to the transaction.
      - CPLX 9y ago
        Yes, if you set up a commercial for-profit business selling things, or delivering rental cars, in a Starbucks or Walmart parking lot they would certainly expect a cut, or otherwise stop you from doing it. This concept is spectacularly non confusing.
        michaelmrose 9y ago
        Meanwhile in reality people seem to be dealing drugs regularly in walmart parking lots and I bought my Craigslist laptop in a coffee shop. I didn't give the coffee shop a cut and I'm pretty sure the shady characters meeting in the walmart parking lot aren't giving the waltons a cut.
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - dragonwriter 9y ago
        > In other news if I meet you in starbucks to buy a laptop from craigslist they aren't getting a cut. Starbucks has decided that a fairly open access policy for non-customers conducting other business is a net positive for their business. Many businesses have different policies because they have different actual or perceived business dynamics. Also note that most Starbucks do place limits on this, as people who mistake them for zero-cost unlimited co-working space tend to discover.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > > But if there's a precedent that people landing in the airport and renting cars pay a tax > Which turns into a tax A tax turns into a tax? Tell me more about this theory...
- michaelmrose 9y ago
  Maybe a sane government would simply decide what level of income/property tax is required to provide whatever level of service rather than passing 192 other individual taxes such that a given consumer doesn't even know the exact figure they paid this year without an accountant and a spreadsheet.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

CPLX 9y ago

But if there's a precedent that people landing in the airport and renting cars pay a tax why should some companies be able to avoid it and not others. This argument is nonsensical.

cornholio 9y ago
Because the new players don't need the services airports provide. Which turns into a tax or a monopoly rent, there is a long a list of such "precedents" that the market and regulators shut down.
- CPLX 9y ago
  If they don't need the service the airport provides they can meet people arriving on planes somewhere that's not an airport. Otherwise it seems to me that they need the service the airport provides.
  - michaelmrose 9y ago
    The service the airport provides is the fact that lots of people are there. In other news if I meet you in starbucks to buy a laptop from craigslist they aren't getting a cut. If they meet the car at Walmart do we expect the walton family to get a cut? If they drop the car off at their home do we expect the HOA to get a cut? At some point we could acknowledge that the airport isn't a party to the transaction.
    - CPLX 9y ago
      Yes, if you set up a commercial for-profit business selling things, or delivering rental cars, in a Starbucks or Walmart parking lot they would certainly expect a cut, or otherwise stop you from doing it. This concept is spectacularly non confusing.
      - michaelmrose 9y ago
        Meanwhile in reality people seem to be dealing drugs regularly in walmart parking lots and I bought my Craigslist laptop in a coffee shop. I didn't give the coffee shop a cut and I'm pretty sure the shady characters meeting in the walmart parking lot aren't giving the waltons a cut.
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      > In other news if I meet you in starbucks to buy a laptop from craigslist they aren't getting a cut. Starbucks has decided that a fairly open access policy for non-customers conducting other business is a net positive for their business. Many businesses have different policies because they have different actual or perceived business dynamics. Also note that most Starbucks do place limits on this, as people who mistake them for zero-cost unlimited co-working space tend to discover.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > > But if there's a precedent that people landing in the airport and renting cars pay a tax > Which turns into a tax A tax turns into a tax? Tell me more about this theory...
michaelmrose 9y ago
Maybe a sane government would simply decide what level of income/property tax is required to provide whatever level of service rather than passing 192 other individual taxes such that a given consumer doesn't even know the exact figure they paid this year without an accountant and a spreadsheet.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]