From: lfsheldon@gmail.com   
      
   On 5/17/2015 15:52, Kurt Hackenberg wrote:   
   > Larry Sheldon   wrote:   
   >   
   >> The closest I can find is "The welfare queens riding in Amtrak luxury at   
   >> the benefit of the American taxpayers are mostly not the poor.   
   >> Nevertheless, you and I and future generations are subsidizing every   
   >> ticket purchased by those who can afford to pay the fare required to   
   >> make Amtrak profitable."   
   >   
   > The problem is the assumption that Amtrak should be profitable,   
   > without subsidy.   
   >   
   > All major forms of transportation are subsidized, and always have   
   > been, in all the rich countries.  Amtrak cannot compete without   
   > subsidy against other modes that are heavily subsidized.   
      
   That holds up to careful thought.  The problem here is the fantasy that   
   somehow highways, paid-for partly (should be entirely) by taxes and   
   tolls, built to specifications mandated by the Defense Department and   
   the insurance companies, used by heavily taxed trucks to haul foods and   
   good is comparable to fancy short-line trains for people who could pay   
   more of their share of the costs of their cushy rides.   
      
      
   > Motor vehicles are heavily subsidized by all those free public roads.   
      Motor vehicles are heavily taxed by all those free public roads.   
      
      
      
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