ext_100117 ([identity profile] coth.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] daveon 2010-08-07 11:31 am (UTC)

There's a British more-or-less equivalent complaint that annoys me which involves (usually) rich white male journalists railing at the Freedom pass that allows over-65s to travel free on public transport as a middle class bung that we can't afford and should be abolished. You can look at it like that if you must, but it's actually a classic public good. Public transport networks always operate with unused capacity, and in the wider scheme of things it is very sensible to extend people's individual capabilities and resources by using otherwise wasted public resources. You wouldn't build a system to do that, but once you have systems already justified for other reasons, the additional cost of the scheme is low relative to the benefits it offers.

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