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Re: We subsidize trucks by building highways, did you just notice?...
Author: BOB2
Date: 11-16-2017 - 21:34
Yes, we taxed RR's and many others to build roads..... We've taxed people to build RR's too, and canals, and ports, and airports.
We've been subsidizing the building public roads by the Federal government. since the National Trail was constructed from Santa Fe to Needles (aka the mother road, aka US 66), actually before we also used subsidies, direct payments, and land grants to build the UP, and the CP, and even the Atlantic and Pacific (aka the AT&SF).
And, later, the States and Federal government "subsidized" (used taxes) for paving roads "to get the farmer out of the mud". And, with the advent of autos and trucks, we started building paved roads connecting America..... And, wasn't that just awful...?
So, did you just notice that we do all of this? And, you just happened to forgot the huge "gubmint" subsidies in the 19th century to build things like the Erie canal, and many of the western RR's?
Of course, we Americans enjoy among the lowest commercial transportation costs for the goods and services we consume, in the world. Trucks, and trains bring not just a few trillion dollars worth of goods every year to consumers at the lowest cost, saving businesses and consumers hundreds of billions of dollars every year in transportation costs, from making those investments in our common infrastructure.
Do we subsidize trucks too much, maybe, maybe not, depending on how you account for the costs and benefits. And, do some of these subsidies distort markets, and has eroded some of the market dominance rail once had? The answer is probably yes, to a certain degree. However, the tonnages and value of all of those goods we move today, dwarf what we carried before we made these public investments, and in fact would not have been achieved without those public investments.
Of course to those who need to "believe" in certain rigid, simplistic, and largely obsolete 18th and 19th century ideologies of political economy, which they seem to worship with the intensity of a pagan religion, this pragmatic, effective, and highly efficient path we've taken in America is absolute heresy.
And, since many these ideologues on the right and left don't seem to like how this complex and complicated system works, I would suggest they go without toilet paper and beer, and try walking to work, for at least a month, and then we'll all get to see how much they hate this awful system, with that evil "gubmint" subsidizing infrastructure, and all of those awful evil greedy corporations oppressing all of us?
We've been subsidizing the building public roads by the Federal government. since the National Trail was constructed from Santa Fe to Needles (aka the mother road, aka US 66), actually before we also used subsidies, direct payments, and land grants to build the UP, and the CP, and even the Atlantic and Pacific (aka the AT&SF).
And, later, the States and Federal government "subsidized" (used taxes) for paving roads "to get the farmer out of the mud". And, with the advent of autos and trucks, we started building paved roads connecting America..... And, wasn't that just awful...?
So, did you just notice that we do all of this? And, you just happened to forgot the huge "gubmint" subsidies in the 19th century to build things like the Erie canal, and many of the western RR's?
Of course, we Americans enjoy among the lowest commercial transportation costs for the goods and services we consume, in the world. Trucks, and trains bring not just a few trillion dollars worth of goods every year to consumers at the lowest cost, saving businesses and consumers hundreds of billions of dollars every year in transportation costs, from making those investments in our common infrastructure.
Do we subsidize trucks too much, maybe, maybe not, depending on how you account for the costs and benefits. And, do some of these subsidies distort markets, and has eroded some of the market dominance rail once had? The answer is probably yes, to a certain degree. However, the tonnages and value of all of those goods we move today, dwarf what we carried before we made these public investments, and in fact would not have been achieved without those public investments.
Of course to those who need to "believe" in certain rigid, simplistic, and largely obsolete 18th and 19th century ideologies of political economy, which they seem to worship with the intensity of a pagan religion, this pragmatic, effective, and highly efficient path we've taken in America is absolute heresy.
And, since many these ideologues on the right and left don't seem to like how this complex and complicated system works, I would suggest they go without toilet paper and beer, and try walking to work, for at least a month, and then we'll all get to see how much they hate this awful system, with that evil "gubmint" subsidizing infrastructure, and all of those awful evil greedy corporations oppressing all of us?
