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thiskillstheredditor t1_jb0a8yq wrote

Reply to comment by zo3foxx in If you’re ever annoyed by service changes because of “Track Repair”, never forget the hard work behind them that keeps our subway alive. by beechcraft10

Taxes should just pay for it imo.

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ihateusedusernames t1_jb0d46x wrote

100% agreed. I'd gladly pay additional local, state, and federal taxes if it meant that nobody in the US needed to pay to use "public" transit. I wonder how much that would cost, spread out over all the tax payers

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eldersveld t1_jb0dvxg wrote

Or, you know, spread out over the richest taxpayers. Just sayin

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DapperBoiCole t1_jb0jmyz wrote

Agreed, but richest taxpayers feels like an oxymoron. Make the rich pay their taxes, make it a requirement of patriotic duty to the country. Screw these scalpers

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BATMAN_UTILITY_BELT t1_jb0ncts wrote

People who use the trains a handful of times should not pay the same tax rate as people that use trains multiple times a day.

Free public transportation eventually results in shitty public transportation and eventually no public transportation. You think the trains are bad now? Wait until there is literally no barrier to entry/use.

People should pay for the services they use. That’s how it is in Europe and Japan, and they are lightyears ahead of the US in terms of public transport.

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thiskillstheredditor t1_jb0ssbs wrote

You could say that about any social service. My house has never caught fire but the fire department can’t be just paid by the people who use it. It’s the social contract you enter by being a part of a community. Most people in nyc use a service, it should be taxpayer funded.

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shutupburd t1_jb0w5os wrote

Except the barrier to entry for using the fire department is your house catching on fire.

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thiskillstheredditor t1_jb11mfr wrote

Fine bad example. The FDA, building inspectors, EPA, food safety people who inspect restaurants, etc. This libertarian notion that people should all pay for services a la carte as they use them is a fantasy.

The trains in most cities are used by a minority of people, but in Manhattan it’s the vast majority.

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BATMAN_UTILITY_BELT t1_jb145oj wrote

Those are completely different still. Those are services that apply to all people.

Train use is something that varies from person to person. While almost everyone in Manhattan uses them, the frequency of use varies from person to person. Therefore, there needs to be a cost associated with frequency.

Not only should people pay, the amount they pay should be based on the location they are traveling to. This is how all major cities in Europe such as London do it. You pay for what you use and the amount you pay depends on where you go. And they have far better public transportation services than the MTA.

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