7 ms·
These cuts are particularly nasty because federal spending on public trail maintenance is already razor thin. A ton of the Pacific Crest Trail and other scenic
by swalling 1y ago
These cuts are particularly nasty because federal spending on public trail maintenance is already razor thin. A ton of the Pacific Crest Trail and other scenic trails are already primarily maintained by volunteer groups doing work like log clearing, brush removal, and tread work. Trail users ourselves—hikers, mountain bikers, or trail runners—already put in hundreds of volunteer hours every season doing the basic trail work, and that's just regular seasonal maintenance. Significant work rebuilding parts of the Appalachian Trail and PCT after wildfires or hurricanes will likely not happen this year, or for years to come, unless volunteers fill in more gaps.
- SoftTalker 1y agoI kind of like the idea of the people using the trails paying for them in kind.
- Matheus28 1y agoYeah, let’s make road users spend a couple days a year pouring asphalt as well. It’s only fair
- Freedom2 1y agoWe should also make sure that anyone who hasn't paid the trail toll or contributed physically are not allowed to use it, it's also only fair.
- SoftTalker 1y agoThe difference of course is that almost everyone uses or benefits from the economy of roads. Relatively very few people use trails and they use them for personal enjoyment.
- throwaway173738 1y agoThe real difference is that people in cities pay huge amounts of tax to support the roads out to a relatively few houses in the country. Roads are the biggest outlay in every county I’ve lived in.
- LadyCailin 1y agoThen the rural people vote to get rid of state run infrastructure, and then get mad at the city slickers because they still have nice roads.
- peter422 1y agoThe number of people who use state and federal parks in a given year is roughly equal to the number of people who fly. It’s definitely a few notches above “very few”.
- Freedom2 1y agoI wonder if the parent to this comment is another "I don't use trails, so no one does!". If you actually walk along a few trails on a regular cadence, it's clear that there are many different people - it's not just the same people every weekend.
- kjkjadksj 1y agoRelatively people use your residential street. Why not let it turn to mud then? Wider economy won't miss it.
- chimpanzee 1y agoYou really can’t think of any ancillary benefits to the presence of accessible nature? I feel like this sort of comment (from someone with 14k+ “karma” points) is a kind of DoS attack on their self-perceived opponents. But nonetheless, here’s three benefits for all, regardless of usage: - reduction in healthcare costs, both physical and mental - increased tourism - increased appreciation for environment which in turn loops back into this list from the top Just focusing on health alone has wide ranging benefits. And if all you care about are tax revenues and GDP, a healthy, happy workforce goes quite a way to improving both. I’m not going to list anymore because I got other things to do and think about. And this isn’t going to change your mind anyways.
- mrj 1y agoNothing wrong with a society wanting to have a nice thing and choosing to paying for it. Trails and parks are politically quite popular.
- const_cast 1y ago[dead]
- ok_dad 1y agoI kinda like the idea that people don’t have to pay for public land access.
- chgs 1y agoThe idea is there’s no public land. The ultra wealthy will own it all and you’ll be confined to your Manna-style death camps.
- amarcheschi 1y agoYou will not be confined, you will have the freedom of choice whether to do that or be coerced into doing that
- 2muchcoffeeman 1y agoI’ve read some exchanges from an American friend with their other American friends on social media years ago. I noticed that many of the people were very against the idea of people they don’t think are deserving from benefiting from them. Even in abstract ways. For example people getting welfare who are actually scamming the system. Or having an outside benefit, like poor people getting free healthcare even if they can’t pay taxes. Trails would have been a good example for this group, “why am I paying for trails I don’t use?”. I have a hypothesis that Americans are so scared of others benefitting from themselves that they miss that many, many more people are deserving and it makes for a better society. But they don’t see that and would rather punish the deserving and themselves, if it means the undeserving will hurt more. I think this thinking also bleeds into your social justice movements.
- 9dev 1y agoIt’s really a weird effect. Like, how enjoyable even is a world where you’re rich, but surrounded by poor, uneducated, sick people, and all you can do is stay inside because the outside is caustic and ravaged? Is it too much mental gymnastics that it’s a lot more interesting to talk to happy, sophisticated, educated people? To enjoy maintained public parks? To learn from the past in museums that present all kinds of viewpoints? To have a strong workforce that is confidently going to the doctor? I’ll never get what’s so hard about things affecting other things, even if it doesn’t immediately yield a profit.
- d0gsg0w00f 1y agoThe problem is that the people who aren't contributing forget who is actually contributing and start tearing down the system because they have no clue how the world works anymore.
- LadyCailin 1y agoGiven how it’s mostly states that take more from the federal government than they give, that are trying to destroy the federal government, my view on keeping the federal government has begun to soften. If Mississippi actively wants to shoot themselves in the foot, at some point, you just have to give up trying to disrupt their plan. Of course not everyone in Mississippi wants that, and many people who don’t will be seriously negatively affected, and won’t have the means to move, so they are why my position hasn’t changed yet.
- mauvehaus 1y agoWe do. - Moped GA-ME 2010 Volunteer maintainer Smarts Mountain Ranger Trail (AT side trail) 2021-present. Landowner and volunteer maintainer on the Cross Rivendell Trail (CRT) 2023-present My wife, who also thru-hiked the AT, before we met is on the CRT board. We spent three days of our vacation in 2023 helping to re-roof Jeffers Brook Shelter on the AT. We are also members of the ATC, GMC, MATC, and PCTA and have been for some combination of those between us since before we met. ETA: Oh yeah, also two weeks ago we helped hump a 200 pound bear box in to Velvet Rocks Shelter on the AT.
- 0xTJ 1y agoYes. That's how it works. They're called taxes.
- lurking_swe 1y agoif we’re going to suggest silly stuff like that, let’s also suggest that cities stop subsidizing suburbs and their expansive infrastructure. sound good? let’s take it a step further, let’s cut spending to anything that brings people joy! let’s all be crabs in a bucket together. convert public beaches to private beaches, public parks to private parks, make every school in the country a private school. this will surely increase the well being of our society (sarcasm). where does this crazy fallacy end? Taxes (and life) is not about min-maxing what benefits YOU personally. It’s about min-maxing your community and society. Kind of like how there is no “I” in team…
- phyzix5761 1y agoCan we start a non profit where people can donate for things like this so we can actually get funding without relying on government?
- grg0 1y agoLet's also pool some money to help the sick pay for health care, the young pay for education and those affected by layoffs tackle the transition. Heck, we could even start our own government.