Having led you down the garden path, I now deposit you at the gates of hell. Let's take a look at what the strict application of the principle of TANSTAAFL has wrought.That sounds like the kind of America in which I dream of living -- the America of Norman Rockwell, John Steinbeck, and Theodore Roosevelt, only with better sanitation, no segregation, and modern health care. (And he didn't even mention how much cleaner and more beautiful America would be without truck stops, billboards, and smog!)* America's highways are empty.
* People have crowded back into the cities, taking public transportation rather than driving.
* Automobile ownership is only for the wealthy.
* Flying is only for the wealthy.
* Trains are everywhere, and railroad bonds have higher Moody's ratings than US government bonds.
* The far suburbs have reverted to farmland.
* People buy their meat and produce at small community-based stores.
Admit it, folks: without big-time federal $$$, the "free-market capitalist" automobile, construction, oil, motor transport and associated industries go bye-bye. Trains are the most cost-efficient mode of transport extant.
* Agribusiness has yielded to the family farm.No more cardboard tomatoes, mealy apples, or tortured-cow hamburgers? Farmers a respected class again instead of being forced to live as debt-ridden welfare junkies? Hell, I'd buy into the author's scenario on the basis of that alone. Count me in!
Granted, he did his best to stop the advance of the automobile, but Theodore Roosevelt helped kill the railroads.
Call it, R-r-r-r-egulation.
(Btw, you really want to live in John Steinbeck's world? Have fun!)
Personally, I prefer driving. However, I'm a road enthusiast. Given the author's World Without Subsidies, I just might become a rail enthusiast! :-)
The problem, of course, is that you would have to take the rest of us there against our will. We would probably have an issue with that.
Then, of course, this isn't Norman Rockwell's America, either...you propose to greatly increase the commons. You won't want to ride the transportation or live in the high rise ghettos that will result.
This guy is just another lifestyle fascist.
“Trains are the most cost-efficient mode of transport extant.”
Only if your time has no value.
L