this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 42 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'd argue it absolutely is financially viable to society, and moreso than the status quo. It's just less financially profitable for certain commercial interests than the status quo.

The trouble is with government, when you spend money somewhere you generally save it somewhere else, or earn it back elsehwere, and it becomes difficult to associate the spending with the cost savings or profits, such that the spending gets cut. In this case, allowing residents to use public transport for free encourages more people and more business to move to the area, which increases income through taxation. However, after a point someone will look at it and say "Why are we spending so much?" and try to cut it, without acknowledging the subsequent decline after the incentive is removed.

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Spend more on trains, spend less on road maintenance, have less traffic then spend less on cops patrolling it.

[–] Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

You hit the nail on the head. The savings would be too distributed between different parts of the government to arrive at a specific number.