Reply #67: I would assert the amount of money needed to subsidize mass transit is nowhere near...

[Selatius]

the amount of money the US government spends on war. Otherwise, the EU would have shitty mass transit. Outside of Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, the budget alloted to the Pentagon is the largest item out there. The latest figures available had 55 billion alloted for the Dept. of Education, for instance, yet the latest figures for war spending came out over 600 billion a year. Amtrak barely gets 1 billion a year. You want to identify where the money would come from? There it is. The problem is the US government would rather piss away money blowing up nations and dicking around with countries with lots of oil than do something different.

I am honestly astounded by the sheer level of resistance towards mass transit here. I'm living in a sub-division right now, and I can honestly tell you the problem with my city is that there is no mass transit. The result is highway 90 where I live is a nightmare every day simply because it would take 40 or 50 cars to move people the same thing 2 or 4 buses could do with multiple buses and multiple routes and stops. Sure, everybody could have an electric car, but then instead of urban gridlock with cars that run on gas, it's cars that run on batteries. Let me tell you one thing: Nobody wants the freaking LA Freeway running through their neighborhood, but that's what's gonna happen if people refuse to get off the idea that everybody should have a car. I'm not saying I'm against the electric car. I believe it's a hell of a lot better than what we have now, but I see electric cars as a stop-gap measure towards transitioning to mass transit. By no means am I seeking to totally abolish private transit, but I want there to exist an option to take the public route should a person not be able to afford a car or the resulting thousands in out-of-pocket costs associated with ownership.

Has nobody been to Europe? Per capita, the costs of everybody buying a car, buying insurance for that car, buying tags for that car, fueling that car, paying for maintenance and repair of that car, nevermind paying for the thousands who die each year on the interstates and roads, is higher than it would to collectively maintain a fleet of buses, simply because the government would have awesome negotiating power in terms of keeping costs, especially insurance, in check. That's the very reason why a lot of people want single-payer health care, simply because if the government covered everybody in a non-profit plan, it would have awesome negotiating power against pharmaceutical companies who wish to gouge. An individual, alone, has nowhere near that kind of bargaining power.

It's not just a quality of life issue. It's about saving money in the long-run.