Re: What kind of idiots ride public transportation?

In message , Brent writes

Private enterprise goes the other way, didn't the large automakes buy up the tram systems in your large cities and rip them up to make cars seem a better idea. Same outcome, less choice.

There is a great deal more to the story than the myth tells. The fundamental problem with street cars demise is the same as all private transit, the required deals with government.

In a free market buying up a competitive system and dismantling it wouldn't work if the that competition were better. Someone would simply start another one. However, with government envolved, with licensing and so forth, there is no just starting another one. Political approval must be obtained. It is only through the state that choice can be limited. So with government, one can buy up a competitor and then through manipulating the political process, keep any new competition from forming.

Private street car systems were failing anyway because of the high cost of operation and the deals they had with government. These deals created high costs and limited revenues as I recall. Buses were much less expensive to operate than street cars. I recall reading a study that even without the influence of GM or other automakers, street cars went out in favor of buses strictly on operational costs and route flexibility.

You're correct. The oil companies and car companies worked together to get the masses "hooked". When the oil companies started taking more than their "fair share", it hurt the automakers. So they're best buddies and one stabs the other in the back. That's why "they" like the oil companies.

In message , Brent writes

As did the first water cooled VW panel vans.