[sustran] More on subsidy-investment terminology.
Eric Bruun
ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu
Fri Aug 22 04:23:13 JST 1997
Terminology is an important point worth spending time on.
As Mr. Cox explained, of course investments are in fact often also
subsidies and should be called as such. But I think Prof. Whitelegg's
point, at least as I understood it, is that people use a double standard.
They say "investment" when it is meant to be positive, "subsidy" when it
is meant to be negative.
I live in Philadelphia. Both transit and roads are "subsidized".
Roads are repaired out of property taxes, not out of user taxes.
40 percent of the households in Phillie do not have cars, and the
roads are much bigger than is needed just for access to property,
so I think that the "investments" in roads are also "subsidies"
to drivers by non-drivers. Also, because payments are not
related to quantity of driving, some auto users "cross-subsidize"
others.
Eric
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