How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways

Re:How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways by Afforess on Sunday November 19, 2017 @11:36PM (#15737829)

Public services are for the working poor, and politicians don't represent the poorer classes. The wealthy and middle class are larger, more dependable blocs, and politicians support policies that favor these two groups. Few in either of these groups use (or want to use) public services like mass transit. So the problem is pretty basic at its core: poor citizens are one of the largest non-voting blocks[1], and so underserved by politicians. This unequal representation leads to further income inequality[2] and partisanship, which leads to even more gerrymandering, more inadequate representation, and further income inequality...

Meanwhile every individual (politician or voter or working poor) acts in an individually rational way, furthering the problem.

[1]: https://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/voting/SB91-23.pdf

[2]: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2649215

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Re:How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways by mjmahone17 on Monday November 20, 2017 @12:10AM (#15737950)

That’s entirely untrue in NYC: 55% of commuters take public transit. I guarantee you that is not only “the working poor.” And of those who do not, a significant percentage still use the subway a few times a week.

So while this would be a plausible argument outside NYC, it’s a ridiculous one given the parent article.

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Re:How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways by JumpCrisscross on Monday November 20, 2017 @12:04AM (#15737923)

> Public services are for the working poor

This doesn’t really work in New York City, where most people are exposed to the subway directly or through the crowding of our shitty roads.

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