To: WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:18:53 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] Odd events
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 23:33:28 -0500 "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> writes:

> At 12/20/2005 11:24 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> >I hope the city government takes the opportunity to do the same
> thing
> >that Reagan did with the air traffic controllers:  Fire all the
> >illegal strikers, and replace them with people willing to work for
> >wages closer to what most of their passengers earn.
>
> Close...they are being fined $1,000,000.00/day for being on an
> illegal strike.
>

The union is being fined $1M per day, which works out to about $30 per
day per worker.  But the union itself would have to pay that fine, if
upheld, not the workers directly.  Individual workers face a different,
and much higher fine.  Illegally striking workers would be fined From ronkean at juno.com  Wed Dec 21 03:29:09 2005
To: WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:05:15 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] Odd events
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 23:24:20 -0500 (EST) "Keith F. Lynch"
<kfl at KeithLynch.net> writes:

>
> It would indeed be nice if there were multiple competing transit
> systems.  For starters, New York ought to legalize jitneys, and do
> away with the medallion requirement for taxis.
>

In effect, that is what has happened, albeit on a temporary emergency
basis.  During morning hours, only cars with at least 4 occupants were
being allowed to enter Manhattan at points of entry below 96th street.
In effect, the prohibition on jitneys has been temporarily lifted.

The NYC taxi medallion system sets a hard limit on the number of taxis
per se, and that was originally the idea, aside from whether it was a
good or a bad idea.  But in larger sense, it's now not a really a hard
limit, partly because of the peculiar definition of 'taxi' in NYC.
Technically, a taxi is a medallioned car for hire which may be hailed on
the street.  There are lots of 'taxis' (by common sense definition) in
NYC that don't have medallions - so-called 'gypsy cabs' (illegal but
numerous) don't have medallions, and 'car service', where a non-medallion
cab is summoned by phone rather than hailed on the street, is legal.

> If everyone who lives or works in Manhattan commuted by car, you
> would
> indeed see the private transportation system break down all at
> once.
> Even if they could all somehow magically get to their destinations,
> the vast majority of them wouldn't find a parking space once they
> got there.
>

That's true, but says little about the fundamental merit of public versus
private transportation.  Over the past 100 years in NYC, public
transportation was extensively developed, and most commuters now depend
on it.  Suddenly shutting that down makes a crisis.  If, hypothetically,
there had been no subways or commuter rail established, then the absence
of those would not be a crisis.  In theory, subways and commuter rail
could be privately owned.

> I hope the city government takes the opportunity to do the same
> thing
> that Reagan did with the air traffic controllers:  Fire all the
> illegal strikers, and replace them with people willing to work for
> wages closer to what most of their passengers earn.
>

The air traffic controllers, who were already highly paid, were arguably
trying to extort even higher wages, and Reagan's response was probably
the right one.  But it's not at all clear that the transit workers who
are striking have higher wages than the riders they serve.  Workers who
commute daily to Manhattan on subway and surface rail probably earn more,
on average, than the transit workers.  It's hard to get by in NYC on what
a transit worker earns, due to the high cost of living.  Firing all those
workers and replacing them with new people at the same wages would not
change that reality.  The fundamental problem, I think, is that transit
wages are being set by a political process, and that transit has been
made a government monopoly.

Ron Kean

.