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Congestion Pricing: No Free Lunch On Roads Or Freedom
When the government holds down the price of something people value, Mr. Manville said, we get shortages. And congestion is effectively a shortage of road — one that occurs at the peak times when people want to use it most.
If we had that problem with other kinds of infrastructure or commodities, we’d charge people more for them. If airline tickets were particularly in demand, their prices would go up. If there were a run on avocados, grocers wouldn’t respond by keeping them as cheap as possible. “The roads hold such a special position in our brain that we use logic around them that we would never use around everything else,” Mr.. Manville said. Other countries have socialized health care, parental leave or housing, Jeffrey Tumlin, a transportation consultant at Nelson\Nygaard, pointed out. In America, we’ve socialized driving — and housing for our cars. “We don’t let people put their self-storage containers in public parks, but it’s just fine to store their cars on other public land for free,” Mr. Tumlin wrote in an email. Peter Norton, a historian at the University of Virginia, traces this thinking to the 1920s and ’30s, when industry groups and government officials were debating whether to fund America’s expanding roads with tolls, which were by then common on bridges. Sign up for The Upshot Newsletter Get the best of The Upshot’s news, analysis and graphics about politics, policy and everyday life. Advertisement Road builders were happy to have tolls, and they appeared in places like the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But auto clubs and car manufacturers dependent on car sales opposed them. They preferred a gas tax, a cost less visible to drivers every time they got in a car. Together, they were remarkably savvy about branding the choice as one between “toll roads and free roads.” (A 1939 federal report even adopted that phrase as its title.) “Of course, there’s no such thing as a free road,” Mr. Norton said. “But they were making the ambiguous association between their cause and the great cause of freedom.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/u...hat-plain.html |
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#2
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Congestion Pricing: No Free Lunch On Roads Or Freedom
On Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 8:34:46 AM UTC-7, Bret Cahill wrote:
When the government holds down the price of something people value, Mr. Manville said, we get shortages. And congestion is effectively a shortage of road — one that occurs at the peak times when people want to use it most. If we had that problem with other kinds of infrastructure or commodities, we’d charge people more for them. If airline tickets were particularly in demand, their prices would go up. If there were a run on avocados, grocers wouldn’t respond by keeping them as cheap as possible. “The roads hold such a special position in our brain that we use logic around them that we would never use around everything else,” Mr. Manville said. Other countries have socialized health care, parental leave or housing, Jeffrey Tumlin, a transportation consultant at Nelson\Nygaard, pointed out. In America, we’ve socialized driving — and housing for our cars. “We don’t let people put their self-storage containers in public parks, but it’s just fine to store their cars on other public land for free,” Mr. Tumlin wrote in an email. Peter Norton, a historian at the University of Virginia, traces this thinking to the 1920s and ’30s, when industry groups and government officials were debating whether to fund America’s expanding roads with tolls, which were by then common on bridges. Sign up for The Upshot Newsletter Get the best of The Upshot’s news, analysis and graphics about politics, policy and everyday life. Advertisement Road builders were happy to have tolls, and they appeared in places like the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But auto clubs and car manufacturers dependent on car sales opposed them. They preferred a gas tax, a cost less visible to drivers every time they got in a car. Together, they were remarkably savvy about branding the choice as one between “toll roads and free roads..” (A 1939 federal report even adopted that phrase as its title.) “Of course, there’s no such thing as a free road,” Mr. Norton said. “But they were making the ambiguous association between their cause and the great cause of freedom.” Milton Friedman and other looneytarians exploit the corollary of that lazy thinking with their unstated assumption of a "free lunch on freedom." It wouldn't be surprising to discover they piggy backed their entire crank economic philosophy off the false notion of free roads established back in the 1920s. Friedman is fond of claiming "there's no free lunch" (which is true) then he "merely omits" that there is no free lunch on freedom. Friedman is fond of claiming that those who fear free markets fear freedom (which is true) but merely omits he's one of those who fears free markets the most, posturing to the contrary notwithstanding. The freedom phobe Friedman dodged the self evident truth that free speech is the precondition of each and every free market free trade like it was lethal. Anything less than an enthusiastic support for the self evident truth don't just raise eyebrows. It completely exposes the "libertarian" fraud. "Merely omit" enough information and you can get voters to believe as an article of faith any insane thing. And I mean _any_ thing. That's how the _NY Times_ has most of the Democratic Party base believing the religious right came over on the Mayflower. How do they do it without actually ever saying the falsehood in any single article? Easy. It's analogous to a Fourier breakdown of a square wave. Play around with enough phase angles, frequencies and amplitudes of enough sine waves, and you can construct a nearly perfect square wave. Shultzberger X has this scam down so good he is probably using the equivalent of a fast Fourier transform, the most efficient way to build a square wave out of the minimum number of sine waves. Historians and political science profs who read the _Times_ know the religious right didn't even exist until the 2nd half of the 20th Century. Whatever defects the pilgrims had didn't include being like Jerry Falwell. But in the macro analysis, the square wave lie the _Times_ has built over decades flies under the profs' radar. If survey of _Times'_ readers was ever published the profs would say, "the appalling ignorance of _Times_ readers on this matter can't be coming from the _Times_. There's not a single article that suggests Pat Robertson came over on the Mayflower. That false notion must be coming from Hollywood, local papers or bad public education . . ." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8FXF1KjzY0 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/u...hat-plain.html "Show us the article that said anything false and we'll correct it. I dare you to show me the article. I double dare you!" -- Shultzberger X trying to distract from the macro effect |
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Congestion Pricing: No Free Lunch On Roads Or Freedom
On Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 4:34:46 PM UTC+1, Bret Cahill wrote:
When the government holds down the price of something people value, Mr. Manville said, we get shortages. And congestion is effectively a shortage of road — one that occurs at the peak times when people want to use it most. I spent the weekend in London, drove my car in and saw the new signs up for the ULEZ zones. My car is a low polluter and will not attract a charge. https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-t...ving-in-london |
#4
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Congestion Pricing: No Free Lunch On Roads Or Freedom
When the government holds down the price of something people value, Mr. Manville said, we get shortages. And congestion is effectively a shortage of road — one that occurs at the peak times when people want to use it most.
I spent the weekend in London, drove my car in and saw the new signs up for the ULEZ zones. My car is a low polluter and will not attract a charge. https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-t...ving-in-london London may play more than a minor role in getting U. S. cities onboard. It's hard to sit back being stuck on stoopid when other places are being smart. Bret Cahill |
#5
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Congestion Pricing: No Free Lunch On Roads Or Freedom
When the government holds down the price of something people value, Mr. Manville said, we get shortages. And congestion is effectively a shortage of road — one that occurs at the peak times when people want to use it most.
I spent the weekend in London, drove my car in and saw the new signs up for the ULEZ zones. My car is a low polluter and will not attract a charge.. https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-t...ving-in-london London may play more than a minor role in getting U. S. cities onboard. It's hard to sit back being stuck on stoopid when other places are being smart. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/con...-approves-plan |
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