The toll road scam: A government-made monopoly you pay for.
Here’s a funny-because-it’s-true take on Transurban and the poor tax it imposes, from Punter’s Politics:
https://youtu.be/FlKBakPAtiw?si=G39_0GcJzSB0SSA8
#cars #roads #fuckcars @fuck_cars #tolls #tollroads #memes #funny #urbanism #UrbanPlanning #auspol #vicpol #nswpol
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Toll roads aren’t bad, it’s all in the details. The problem is that the government is often “captured” and therefore has no incentive to have a fair contract, so they’ll add clauses like
- If the company loses money because the government does something, the government will pay them. This often prevents the government from reducing or removing the toll road / other privately owned resource.
- The government can’t “compete” with the toll road, either with another road or (sometimes) through public transport.
- The government will often, as a form of pork-barrelling, offer people reimbursements for the toll road usage, thereby funneling tax payer money into the private company.
- Toll roads are tax deductible.
Ideally, toll roads encourage people to take the train.
3 points
Usually the details show toll roads are bad. Ideally, toll roads are not needed. Toll roads are a result of failure of government.
2 points