Michelle Wu wants the MBTA to be free

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by turf3

Of COURSE not. Don't be silly.

So all the subsidized things you receive are fine but you don't use public transportation so how dare that be subsidized?

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

So you went to private school? If you have children, they went to private schools? You own your own fire truck? You have your own security guard? You have a pickup with a plow and plow your own street? Are you independently wealthy where Social Security where you likely get back far more than you ever pay in doesn't matter? Or Medicare with the same math? Most likely, high income people are subsidizing you.

I understand what you are trying to say, but most of us middle to upper-middle income taxpayers still do not realize the benefits of what we put in on a state level. Not enough of it goes to general education, transportation infrastructure and public safety. The transportation system is super inefficient. The safety net is bloated. Massachusetts spends $1.9b a year on the illegal population (not even counting local city/town costs). Those of us who graduated more that 15 years ago, were educated far more cheaply than those today. Sure, the top earners subsidize at an even higher rate. But especially in Mass. with its (fairly high) flat tax rate and considerably high local property taxes, those in the middle certainly do not owe anything more.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

So all the subsidized things you receive are fine but you don't use public transportation so how dare that be subsidized?

Looks to me like 70-80% of the cost IS subsidized.


And I do use public transportation. I think it's a fine idea to use considerable sums of taxpayer money on it, WHICH IS CURRENTLY BEING DONE. I also think toll roads are a fine idea.


But it's OK, you seem bound and determined to misunderstand what I am saying, so just go on ahead then. Let's make EVERYTHING "free" and get it all from taxes. What could possibly go wrong?


(Do you think that General Secretary Gorbachev, or Interim President Guaido, or Mrs. Thatcher, might have any insight?)