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How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country

23 points by melling 8y ago

matchbok 8y ago
In the end, Nashville will suffer. More and more young people don't want to be handcuffed to cars for 3+ hours a day. Good luck with your highways.
bradlys 8y ago
> Americans for Prosperity counters that public transit plans waste taxpayer money on unpopular, outdated technology like trains and buses just as the world is moving toward cleaner, driverless vehicles. lol - as if those are coming anytime soon with the way Uber and Tesla are killing people. It's not like they're making a real argument here anyway - it's just a red herring. It's interesting to see how easy people are swayed by a simple knock on the door. Are there any campaigns/koch-brothers-types like this but on the other side of the political fence? I feel like I don't know of any off the top of my head but maybe that's because I only pay attention to news about the right and not listen to news /from/ the right.
wahern 8y ago
If the Koch Brothers were serious about a less intrusive government they'd spend at least as much money on, e.g., fighting parking requirements. Then the need or lack thereof for publicly-funded mass transit wouldn't be left to the imaginations of idealists and cynics. As it is, the Koch Brothers are just reactionaries doing at least as much damage as the idealists. I'll take idealism over cynicism any day. As long as municipalities aren't permitted to hide the costs (of expenditures, of tax breaks) then the tax burden is a sufficient counter-veiling force to the worst excesses.
394549 8y ago
> Central to the work of Americans for Prosperity is i360, the Kochs’ data operation, which profiles Americans based on their voter registration information, consumer data and social media activities What do we know about the data sources they're using for this? I'm interested in learning more about the structure of the data broker industry (and trying to opt-out of as much of it as I can).

23 points by melling 8y ago

In the end, Nashville will suffer. More and more young people don't want to be handcuffed to cars for 3+ hours a day. Good luck with your highways.

bradlys 8y ago

> Americans for Prosperity counters that public transit plans waste taxpayer money on unpopular, outdated technology like trains and buses just as the world is moving toward cleaner, driverless vehicles. lol - as if those are coming anytime soon with the way Uber and Tesla are killing people. It's not like they're making a real argument here anyway - it's just a red herring. It's interesting to see how easy people are swayed by a simple knock on the door. Are there any campaigns/koch-brothers-types like this but on the other side of the political fence? I feel like I don't know of any off the top of my head but maybe that's because I only pay attention to news about the right and not listen to news /from/ the right.

wahern 8y ago

If the Koch Brothers were serious about a less intrusive government they'd spend at least as much money on, e.g., fighting parking requirements. Then the need or lack thereof for publicly-funded mass transit wouldn't be left to the imaginations of idealists and cynics. As it is, the Koch Brothers are just reactionaries doing at least as much damage as the idealists. I'll take idealism over cynicism any day. As long as municipalities aren't permitted to hide the costs (of expenditures, of tax breaks) then the tax burden is a sufficient counter-veiling force to the worst excesses.

394549 8y ago

> Central to the work of Americans for Prosperity is i360, the Kochs’ data operation, which profiles Americans based on their voter registration information, consumer data and social media activities What do we know about the data sources they're using for this? I'm interested in learning more about the structure of the data broker industry (and trying to opt-out of as much of it as I can).