From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "WSFAList (E-mail)" <WSFAList at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Transportation TANSTAAFL
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 08:59:43 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

	Mr. Walsh professes to have a "radical thought" that public
transportation should be free.  Cute, but neither practical nor terribly
radical.  Someone has to pay for the producation of the vehicles and the
time and labor of the drivers, which means either taxes or user fees or
both.  Designating something as "public" merely means that the taxpayers
foot all or part of the bill.  Radical?  Variations of this concept have
been suggested for thousands of years and have proven ineffective for
thousands of years.  If someone wants to be truly radical, organize a
transportation service and provide free service to anyone you designate.
	Ms. Matigan suggests punitively taxing private citizens to subsidize
public transportation.  This has the virtue of suggesting a revenue stream
to pay for her concept, but fails to explain why public transportation
supported by coercion is more desirable than private transportation services
supported by voluntary transactions.  Socialism by the back door is still
socialism, and socialism is both morally and economically inferior to free
enterprise practiced by moral citizens.