Has anyone done an analysis of the fairness of toll roads --- who pays, who benefits, who doesn't pay, etc.?
If I have to drive to and from work each day, am I using the road, or is my employer? If I drive to the store to buy food to feed myself and my family, am I benefiting from the road as much as the owner of the store? What about the patient that my wife attends to who has his stitches sewn properly because my wife had a proper breakfast? Does he benefit from my use of the road? If so, how much should he pay? What about the janitors who clean our toilets? Why should they pay 10% of their hourly income in transportation fees while I pay only 1/100th of a percent of mine? What happens when janitors and others cannot unilaterally raise their price to pay for the increase in their out-of-pocket cost? If I own a company with 1,000 employees, each of whom has to pay $1.00 per day to drive to and from work, and my company has profits of $1,000,000 per year, how much of the $365,000 transportation cost should I pay? Let's say each employee makes $25,000 per year, then the toll is about 1 1/2 of a percent of their income. If I pay the toll for each employee, it's about 35 percent of my profits. How to pay for this fairly? Without roads, I would have no business, so my income after paying for the roads would go from 0 to $635,000. In other words, if I had to invest the money for the roads up front, I would get a return of 75% (a net profit of $270,000 = $635,000 - $365,000)- on my investment --- a phenomenal annual rate of return. So, we could think of it this way --- I borrow $365,000 from the government at the beginning of the year, they provide roads, and then I make my $1,000,000, and then I pay the government (the other citizens, in other words) back the money I OWE them --- which is a bargain because I'm paying no interest. Is that a reasonable way to look at it? What else is there to consider? Bill
