Road
Wage
 I
have a theory why the Republican Party
is reluctant to pass a bill that will spend
the billions our country needs to repair
its failing infrastructure, in the process
putting millions of Americans back to work,
and it's not just because of their usual
spitefulness towards that nasty
old negro in the White House.
(Side note: Now would be a GREAT time to
borrow money to perform all this work as
the effective credit rate would be as close
to zero as you can get.)
I think the GOP wants to continue shoveling
as many tax breaks at the rich as possible
so that eventually there'll be nothing
left in the government kitty for
things like
road and bridge repair. That's when private
concerns, the financiers who've been sitting
on trillions of dollars they've stuffed
in their mattresses, will step up and say "Hey!
We'll do it! We'll even pay you for the
opportunity!
Just sign here!"
At which point every
thoroughfare in America instantly becomes
a toll road. Forever.
That's sot of happened in my home city
of Dallas, Texas. There's an east-west
chunk
of Loop
635 on the northern edge of the city, one
we lovingly refer to as "The LBJ Freeway",
that has become badly congested, and the
usual
answer
to
such problems was to just widen the road.
So the powers-that-be put the taxpayer
on the hook for over two billion dollars
in bonds and taxes and then said "Hey!
Let's build a toll road! And we'll sell
the contract to [sound of giant Crony Wheel
spinning, finally slowing to a stop] SPAIN!"
So now a Spanish
company is going to control
a vital chunk of local road for the next
50 years and, in the process, charging
variable rates for traveling on it. Yes,
I said "variable".
It will soon cost between 10 and 75 cents
per mile to drive on this thing, so I'm
guessing some telepathy may be in order. This
stretch of road is 17 miles long, so do
the infuriating math.
BTW, this company even has a noncompete
clause in its contract should
someone else decide to build another tollroad
nearby. It's literally their way or no
highway.
In case you haven't figured it out these
new tolls are, in effect, an additional
tax on the consumer. (Republicans
don't raise taxes but they'll certainly
fee and toll your ass to death.) And who
do we complain
to if there's a problem with the road?
Not a local bureaucrat but, presumably,
some
call-support
guy
in Barcelona. That ought to go well.
Will this section of LBJ ever
become a free road again? Certainly not
in my lifetime. The Dallas/Fort
Worth
Turnpike
began as a toll road in the 50s but paid
off its debt and was declared a free road
in
1997.
Meanwhile
the North Dallas Toll Road, started in
1968, and having learned its lesson from
the Turnpike has added several additions
over the
years, continuing to
charge
for every stinking mile. They'll probably
keep adding new sections until they reach
Canada, just to keep the tolls rolling
in. (Incidentally, the old Turnpike has
been widened considerably over the years
but not the Toll
Road.)
The interesting thing is
the way they dun you for usage of the
toll roads, if you lack a toll tag, is
for a reader to scan your
licence
plate
and
then they mail you the bill.
Now just
imagine how hard it would be for the supposed
new owners
of
our roads
to stick
one
of
these
scanners
on
every
local
street.
(FYI, Dallas probably has more red
light cameras per mile of road than
any other city in the U.S. The government
down
here isn't shy about employing such toys
if it means enhancing the revenue stream.)
This sounds terrible but I console myself by
imagining how much fun it will be to bash
the scanners into scrap with a baseball
bat on a moonless night.
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Speaking of the middle
class. (Click for embiggening.)
=Lefty=
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