Reply #21: The cost to Americans of their "love" of the automobile is much greater than relying on mass transit

[AdHocSolver]

The issue is not whether mass transit is "profitable". The automobile is heavily subsidized through road construction, oil company subsidies and give-aways, not to mention the wars that have been fought over oil.

The issue is whether the cost to consumers of buying, maintaining, and repairing automobiles, building and maintaining roads, buying insurance, buying gasoline, and paying extra for food due to the insane practice of using corn to produce ethanol is greater than would be their share of subsidies to support a well-designed mass transit system.

Besides being significantly cheaper to maintain, mass transit is far less polluting of the environment. The automobile "culture" is the most extravagant, wasteful, environmentally destructive economic system imaginable.