4 ms·

The results of Germany's 9€ ticket were profound - where it was more meant socially due to rising fuel prices, it had tremendous impact even on traffic jams, an

The results of Germany's 9€ ticket were profound - where it was more meant socially due to rising fuel prices, it had tremendous impact even on traffic jams, and people that were not expected to switched over. As public transport is usually publicly founded and/or subsidized, it also just makes sense to make it free for the public. Sure, the riches didn't like their Sylt getting invaded by Punks ... but except that I think your fear is unfounded, people don't travel just for fun, except for vacation/recreation, and it is much unfairer if the poor family cannot even do that, while better of people can do anything in their megavan (or to the extreme, in their private jet). Bostonian sounds like Boston ;), is it really so ingrained in the US that everything free or social must be bad? Some kind of mobility is imo kind of basic right, and it wouldn't hurt us richer nations to more support it. (just to make it clear, saying as someone who likely more pays for it than having any use).

School-Cotton 4y ago
> is it really so ingrained in the US that everything free or social must be bad? It’s not “the US” as a whole, it’s one particular ideology within the US, but yes, it’s somewhat more common of a view than in Germany.
- SequoiaHope 4y ago
  One could argue that neoliberalism has been the dominant ideology in the USA for both parties since Ronald Reagan. Democrats and Republicans simply argue about whether the government should do very little or nothing at all. (Unless they are providing protection to big business, and then the government springs in to action.)
  - School-Cotton 4y ago
    According to Wikipedia, the total government budget in the US is around $20k per capita[0] which is on par with some very rich European countries like Germany and France. The problem in the US is extreme waste/inefficiency and unequal access, not lack of spending. By the way, neoliberalism is the dominant ideology in most countries now, not just the US. But neoliberalism doesn’t mean “no state spending”; that would be an exaggerated caricature. What you’re describing is more like libertarianism (in the US sense of the term) which indeed is rather unique to the US, but not the dominant ideology. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_government_budget_per_capita https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_governm...
    - TaylorAlexander 4y ago
      Remove the military from your calculations (for US and for Europe) and you will find the US spends significantly less per capita on its people.
gernb 4y ago
the problem is incentives. Japan is often claimed to have the best trains and subways in the world. They are privately run for profit and the train companies own real estate and business around their stations so it gives them a positive feedback loop. more riders = more patrons for their other businesses. conversely a public system someone is always trying to cut the budget as it's just an expense from the pov of most governments
- spaniard89277 4y ago
  In Spain the stations are run by the infrastructure operator, which is a public entity. They don't seem very ambtious though. Arguably many stations are old and it's difficult to transform them to shopping malls. They typically run just a bar and a couple of shops.

School-Cotton 4y ago

> is it really so ingrained in the US that everything free or social must be bad? It’s not “the US” as a whole, it’s one particular ideology within the US, but yes, it’s somewhat more common of a view than in Germany.

SequoiaHope 4y ago
One could argue that neoliberalism has been the dominant ideology in the USA for both parties since Ronald Reagan. Democrats and Republicans simply argue about whether the government should do very little or nothing at all. (Unless they are providing protection to big business, and then the government springs in to action.)
- School-Cotton 4y ago
  According to Wikipedia, the total government budget in the US is around $20k per capita[0] which is on par with some very rich European countries like Germany and France. The problem in the US is extreme waste/inefficiency and unequal access, not lack of spending. By the way, neoliberalism is the dominant ideology in most countries now, not just the US. But neoliberalism doesn’t mean “no state spending”; that would be an exaggerated caricature. What you’re describing is more like libertarianism (in the US sense of the term) which indeed is rather unique to the US, but not the dominant ideology. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_government_budget_per_capita https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_governm...
  - TaylorAlexander 4y ago
    Remove the military from your calculations (for US and for Europe) and you will find the US spends significantly less per capita on its people.

gernb 4y ago

the problem is incentives. Japan is often claimed to have the best trains and subways in the world. They are privately run for profit and the train companies own real estate and business around their stations so it gives them a positive feedback loop. more riders = more patrons for their other businesses. conversely a public system someone is always trying to cut the budget as it's just an expense from the pov of most governments

spaniard89277 4y ago
In Spain the stations are run by the infrastructure operator, which is a public entity. They don't seem very ambtious though. Arguably many stations are old and it's difficult to transform them to shopping malls. They typically run just a bar and a couple of shops.