Mass Transit Ridership Surprise

For some reason it appears to surprise some people that mass transit ridership numbers have increased as gas prices have increased. That seems like a bit of a no-brainer. In a market where fuel is cheap everyone wants their freedom. When fuel costs are higher, they are willing to deal with less freedom and will ride mass transit. Just FYI - Most people do not really do anything to "Save the Planet". It usually revolves around how does it directly effect them and there pocketbook.

Mass transit will be widely accepted and ridden in two scenarios: heavy traffic and high fuel prices. If you have either one or both mass transit becomes and option that people will consider.

Now that said the article that I linked to also describes how people are having problems with mass transit. To me this is a two-fold problem: government is notoriously pathetic at maintaining, managing and running ANYTHING. Too many examples to name. Second, this is a perfect time and reason to find a way to raise taxes for mass transit. While there is demand voters will be accepting of tax increases to pay to fix the transit systems that they are now actually riding.

Typical Politics with old policy

We are in an election year where the Democrat is claiming that he will change everything yet what is the solution the Democrats have for the oil issue: Windfall Profits Tax.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364846,00.html

This is a policy that the infamous President Peanut Jimmy Carter already tried with disasterous results. At that time, gas prices were rising and the geniuses in Washington decided on Windfall Profits Tax and price caps. Guess what happened? No surprise to anyone who understands economics, companies started producing less fuel. Then what happened, fuel shortages. Carter's ingenius response? Fuel rationing. So you could only get a certain amount of fuel each week. Does this sound the future you want?

Also, how does the government getting money from oil company solve the problem that I am paying too much for gas?? This seems like faulty logic unless you are politician with a great idea as to how to spend it. They are currently saying for alternative fuels (lookup what happened to the tobacco settlement money that was supposed to be spent on education and smoking programs). Typical politicians with the same old tricks.

Now that said, the Republicans have absolutely NO idea how to work on the problem. They are just spinning in circles with really no decent ideas.

Facts are facts politicians don't understand the market. If they would stay out of it and stop trying to regulate and tax everything the solution would very quickly arise. This is how the free market works, where there is demand (read money) there will be someone to sell a solution.

Typical politicians- same tricks. The problem is that many are still falling for it.

They admitted it!!

I was amazed when I recently read an article about the U.N. announcing that they have drastically overestimated the number of AIDS cases in the world. They cut the number by 40%!!!

Anyway that's not what amazed me. What did amaze me was two statements that were made in the article with very little emphasis.

1. "Having millions fewer people with a lethal contagious disease is good news. Some researchers, however, contend that persistent overestimates in the widely quoted U.N. reports have long skewed funding decisions and obscured potential lessons about how to slow the spread of HIV. Critics have also said that U.N. officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support for combating AIDS."

2. "There was a tendency toward alarmism, and that fit perhaps a certain fundraising agenda," said Helen Epstein

Both statements amazed me because they are so true. The U.N. has really only been concerned about fundraising not about actually solving the problem. This is the very nature of government.

There are so many "crisises" in the world that follow this same approach. First, the "scientists" yell that the sky is falling. They ask for funding to research the problem. They ask for funding to find the solution. When the funding and interest dwindle, they either yell that it is much worse than orignally thought or they find something else to yell about (i.e. get money for) .

Global Warming, AIDS crisis, world hunger, endangered species, avian flu, SARS, etc. Not that any of these items don't have a seed of truth but everyone is blown out of proportion in order to gain funding without doing the necessary research.

To best understand the issue... Follow the money!