L.A. Liberty

Re: Gas Prices and Rail Infrastructure

RottenCapital wrote in response to photo post:

Isn’t the major problem the poor infrastructure of the US compared to other countries? It favors the rich who can afford cards and high gasoline prices or just simply live in the city centers, wheres poor people suffer the most ffrom it. http://bit.ly/wXnaAO

In short, no. At least not insofar as it relates to transportation as your link implies. Trains are the least efficient method of transportation per passenger mile in the United States, and in most places around the world. Not only does it require nigh-full capacity and highly populated areas to function properly, it needs to have stops based on demand where use is maximized. Because of government involvement, many terminals are instead decided by which district had the better lobbyists. This results in a corrupt, expensive, and slow system. Even in countries that are not as spread-out as the United States and that have legitimately good rail systems, demand often does not meet expectations, which means limited resources are wasted. ^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Also, in many countries with high-speed rail, taxes and tariffs even higher than those in the United States are intended to offset rail costs while incentivizing more people to use rail. This results in exactly what you allege: the autonomy of being able to travel directly and efficiently is limited to only the wealthy who can more easily afford it. In other words, it is the state - with its taxes, tariffs, inflation, limits to production, foreign policy failings, and corporatist protectionism - that is most responsible for pricing gasoline out of reach from the poor. In fact, Exxon’s profits (Q1 2011), which are so often derided as evil, come out to approximately seven cents ($0.07) per gallon. Meanwhile, average taxes alone (not including tariffs or costs to regulatory compliance, etc.) come out to over forty-eight cents ($0.48) per gallon. ⁶

As if that weren’t all, trains tend to be the deadliest form of transportation per passenger mile as well. ⁷

Not a good record, and hardly indicative that the poor, much less anyone else, sees a net benefit. And as I wrote a few days ago, the state is no friend to the poor.

What favors the rich more than the poor are the myriad corporatist policies, protections, and so-called regulations that are often championed by well-meaning but misguided individuals who blame the market process for shortcomings and impediments of the state.

Posted February 24, 2012 at 10:48am in ∆ rottencapital riposte taxes | comments || home