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People are driven by the cattle prod. If the government wants to reduce something, it needs to be more painful to acquire or use, i.e. sin taxes. It's worked on
by nullindividual 2y ago
People are driven by the cattle prod. If the government wants to reduce something, it needs to be more painful to acquire or use, i.e. sin taxes. It's worked on cigarettes, alcohol, soda, etc. to varying degrees. The government would likely have a very big uphill battle to out-market the automobile industry given a large segment of the population distrusts or dislikes the government.
I ultimately agree with the approach they're taking. It isn't going to be accomplished by building additional lanes and subsequently asking people to pretty-please take transit.
It does need to be weighed against the practicality of transportation to/from where your transit riders need to go. Given the vast majority of Western states are sparsely populated, transit dollars can only go so far.
- kloop 2y ago> The government would likely have a very big uphill battle to out-market the automobile industry given a large segment of the population distrusts or dislikes the government. It seems weird that the response to "a democratic government, which derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, has lost the confidence of large swaths of the electorate" is to give that institution more direct social control. That seems like the opposite of what a sane system would do.
- someguydave 2y agoHurting people to teach them your morality certainly has some interesting historical analogies
- baq 2y agoeveryone's morality is different, one would hope the government optimizes for something else, like you paying more to slowly kill yourself because it costs the government money when you stop paying taxes early and use your social security net instead of working
- nullindividual 2y agoThis is not an argument worth having as it can be extended to any law written, up to and including laws against murder.
- someguydave 2y agoThere is an difference between the government punishing murderers and government bureaucrats employed by elected representatives to build roads deciding to punish the general population by not building roads (and still being paid tax dollars)
- adolph 2y ago> If the government wants to reduce something, it needs to be more painful to acquire or use. . . > given a large segment of the population distrusts or dislikes the government. I have a notion the former is related to the latter and might even be a downhill spiral.
- nullindividual 2y agoPeople may use sin taxes or similar as an outward excuse, but I doubt rational individuals want to overthrow the government because they are paying an extra 25 cents for soda or haven't had their wetlands paved over for additional parking spaces.
- adolph 2y agoGoalpost movement noted. Is being "driven by the cattle prod" a valid excuse to hold views described as "distrusts or dislikes the government?"
- nullindividual 2y agoNo goal posts were moved, but nice try. You also seem to be under the false assumption that the cattle prod is a real device in this scenario.
- adolph 2y agoMoving from a maximally coercive metaphorical “cattle prod” to a minimal “sin tax” is classic. Go on https://medium.com/bigger-picture/what-is-a-motte-bailey-aad572eacc37 https://medium.com/bigger-picture/what-is-a-motte-bailey-aad...
- duxup 2y agoAnd people can make the government change policy. I don't think the prod that is in the people's hands is a good idea here.