Road Subsidies - The way revenue is extracted for the purpose of building and maintaining roads pretty much means anyone who drives pays for there usage whether it be on a tollroad, parking lot or city street. “User fees” with all revenues accounted for being devoted towards road usage would still not full cover the costs of it. Many billions of dollars are also spent by government on R&D for “Green” automobiles.
In an ideal world there would be an over all transportation policy with each mode of transportation factored into it. But that is just not going to happen.
There will never be an end to either subsidies nor to regulations of any and all businesses. Businesses are themselves a major reason for both in that they ask the government for aid in form of tax relief, easement, abatement, eminent domain privileges, permissions, etc. and take competitors and those in opposition or problematical to court for a ruling which becomes either law or regulation. Then they complain about regulations and we complain about subsidies.
Trying to objectively level the playing field is a fools errand.
What is “level” depends on where you draw the boundaries. Do you include changes induced from the subisdies? Over what period of time? How far do you go looking at indirect subsidies? When is a “benefit” a “subsidy” or vise versa.
All we will get is a lot of heat and noise.
Better to just look at things incrementally and do cost/benefit analysis of alternatives. It still can get a bit squishy, but you wind up actually doing something - or avoid doing something (if “do nothing” wins) and progress actually occurs.
I agree 100%, though I think the federal government needs to end all subsidies. I think that subsidies are a way of spreading around favors and make the government more corrupt. It would be better if any subsidies come only from the individual states. It is much easier to move to a different state than to move to a different country.
I’m not so sure about that, Don. When I began riding trains in the 50’s I never ever saw a woman or a member of a minority group collecting tickets on a train. Now it is quite common to see both. I don’t say the playing field is now perfectly level but I think a lot of the hills have been greatly diminished and the valleys largely filled in.
I don’t follow your line of thinking here. If it is wrong for the Federal Government to give a subsidy wouldn’t is be equally wrong for a state government to give that subsidy?
The point I was trying to make is that when the Federal government starts controlling things (i.e., what form of transportation should get a boost in the form of government money) I think it is difficult to determine if it is really working. I see governments as basically a Walmart-like store. One of the ways a Walmart determines it is doing good is by attracting patrons from other stores. The patrons will go shop at the stores that give them what they want. If Walmart does not give the customers what they want they may start shopping at Target. However if the only store available is Walmart, people have no choice where to shop. Walmart will be selling things and people to a certain point will have to buy it. Walmart will think they are making people happy because people keep on shopping there, even though they have no choice. However, if Target, Sears, Kmart and other stores are available Walmart will need to always do their best to make people happy. I the the Federal government as a Walmart all by themselves. People keep on shopping there only because they have to. The states however, can be like 50 different stores that people can shop at.
The point I am trying to make is that if a state makes me unhappy with how they spend their tax dollars, I can go to another state. It is harder to go to another country.
I don’t see that there is a problem in determining whether or not Federal initiatives are working. For example, it is clear to me that the interstate highway system while overall providing important highway connections between cities has at the same time gutted many of our cities themselves leaving us with horrendous problems. The problem is that once this massive destruction is caused there is not much that can be done about it.
Also, it certainly is possible to move to another state if people are unhappy with the state where they live. For example, the taxes in my state, New Jersey, are so high that there is a constant stream of retired people who leave to live in states with lower taxes. However, it is also possible to leave the country if people so choose. Many Americans who are retired have moved to Mexico.