5 ms·

To be fair you must balance it against the costs to administer paying for the "free" service, i.e. cost of collections via taxes or whatever, allocation of reso

To be fair you must balance it against the costs to administer paying for the "free" service, i.e. cost of collections via taxes or whatever, allocation of resources via some contingent of petty bureaucrats, disbursement via whatever system of adminstrators that are required to keep the books, and enforcement to guard against cronyism, cooking the books and other sorts of corruption.

snovv_crash 7y ago
But you already have all of that, since public transport is usually subsidized to some degree.
- xwolfi 7y ago
  Oh but you know it all change when a new lump comes in: a new office of collection must be created, temptation to use it to fund something else must be constantly fought, and 2 years later everyone even forgot why this tax was in in the first place. The tax is nice to try, but what's best for laws like that is to remember they are trials, and we should be honest in accepting it's more expensive for everyone to pay a cheap tax than paying more for each transport, however weird it sounds at first.
- lostlogin 7y ago
  ‘Private’ vehicles are subsidised too. You get a a road paved to where you’re going. You get maintenance, bridges, tunnels, intersections, signs, policing, courts, ambulances, fire trucks, lighting, parking (when free). Cars are a massive transfer of public land to private usage. The cost of this needs to be factored in too.
  - snovv_crash 7y ago
    I believe we are in violent agreement.
zaarn 7y ago
You'll also have to account for the money saved that you no longer have to spend operating the ticket machines or have people patrol the public transports and checking for tickets. That alone should be tens of thousands of euros saved.
- xyzzyz 7y ago
  Tens of thousands of euros saved is pretty much cost of running one extra bus for a year. So no, I don't think it's going to make a huge difference.
  - zaarn 7y ago
    An extra bus can carry a lot of people. It could cover parts of the city not well covered by other routes.
southerntofu 7y ago
French public transports are already greatly financed by public money. Then, in many regions, employers have to pay a contribution to the transport infrastructure, usually around half the monthly price of their employees' transport bills. Making transports free to end-users actually saves a lot of money by removing all these layers of bureaucracy and control. No need for barriers, repairpeople to fix the ticket machines, and security guards to beat the hell out of people who can't pay.

snovv_crash 7y ago

But you already have all of that, since public transport is usually subsidized to some degree.

xwolfi 7y ago
Oh but you know it all change when a new lump comes in: a new office of collection must be created, temptation to use it to fund something else must be constantly fought, and 2 years later everyone even forgot why this tax was in in the first place. The tax is nice to try, but what's best for laws like that is to remember they are trials, and we should be honest in accepting it's more expensive for everyone to pay a cheap tax than paying more for each transport, however weird it sounds at first.
lostlogin 7y ago
‘Private’ vehicles are subsidised too. You get a a road paved to where you’re going. You get maintenance, bridges, tunnels, intersections, signs, policing, courts, ambulances, fire trucks, lighting, parking (when free). Cars are a massive transfer of public land to private usage. The cost of this needs to be factored in too.
- snovv_crash 7y ago
  I believe we are in violent agreement.

zaarn 7y ago

You'll also have to account for the money saved that you no longer have to spend operating the ticket machines or have people patrol the public transports and checking for tickets. That alone should be tens of thousands of euros saved.

xyzzyz 7y ago
Tens of thousands of euros saved is pretty much cost of running one extra bus for a year. So no, I don't think it's going to make a huge difference.
- zaarn 7y ago
  An extra bus can carry a lot of people. It could cover parts of the city not well covered by other routes.

southerntofu 7y ago

French public transports are already greatly financed by public money. Then, in many regions, employers have to pay a contribution to the transport infrastructure, usually around half the monthly price of their employees' transport bills. Making transports free to end-users actually saves a lot of money by removing all these layers of bureaucracy and control. No need for barriers, repairpeople to fix the ticket machines, and security guards to beat the hell out of people who can't pay.