Krugman: Tunnel Of Idiocy (on NJ Gov. Chris Christie's rejection of rail tunnel)

[ProSense]

Tunnel Of Idiocy

Many reports that Chris Christie is about to scuttle the second rail tunnel under the Hudson. If so, it’s arguably the worst policy decision ever made by the government of New Jersey — and that’s saying a lot.

The story seems to be that Christie wants to divert the funds to road and bridge repair; but in so doing he would (a) lose huge matching funds from the Port Authority and the Feds (b) delay indefinitely a project NJ needs desperately ASAP. He could avoid these consequences by raising gasoline taxes. But no, taxes must never be raised, no matter what the tradeoffs.

And it’s a social bad too: now is very much the time when we should be ramping up infrastructure spending, not cutting it.

Awesome.

And yes, if anyone should mention it, I am a resident of New Jersey who often visits Manhattan, and therefore has a personal stake in this project. You got a problem with that?

The only comment to Krugman's post is interesting:

I have no problem with people who want a particular service, and are willing to pay the tolls necessary to provide it. The problem with "progressives" is that they want the services, and want OTHER people to pay for it.

Is this person suggesting that only progressives need the roads, bridges and tunnels, that non-progressives shouldn't have to pay for the roads, bridges and tunnels?

Moron.

[unpossibles]

1. basically, yes. They assume that we do not pay taxes and are the ones using the roads

probably because they assume they are the "captains of industry" and we are the 40-50% of America who are too poor to pay income taxes. Who the heck knows? All I do know is that they are too entrenched in their propaganda to realize that (a) we ALL benefit from these services and programs, even the business owners who don't use the rail, as their customers and employees DO use them, and (b) we all pay for them with the exception of about 5-10% who are simply too poor.

I'm so sick of the "taxes=slavery=theft" memes as they completely undermine the many good things we DO have about society. Sure, no one really likes paying taxes, but to me the return is completely worth it. Imagine in Libertarian world dealing with customer service like one finds with their cable or phone company every time you needed to use a public service. <shudder>

[Beacool]

2. That's my governor!!!

The new darling of the Republican party.

:eyes:

[blue_onyx]

6. Yep

He was in Michigan yesterday supporting Rick Snyder. If Snyder wins, we'll be getting some of that great Christie-like leadership here too.

[COLGATE4]

3. If you want to see what the country will look like in Rethug

hands, look no further than this guy.:puke:

[JustAnotherGen]

4. That's my governor

But as a person who rarely goes into Manhattan but has to drive on torn up route 22 and 28 quite a bit - I'd rather see those roads fixed.

[ProSense]

5. There's a battle going on over there. Krugman's post generated more

than 270 comments. He also posted two followups:

Abandon All Hope

At some visceral level, I guess I was expecting Christie to back down at the last minute — expecting that there would be a still, small voice in his mind saying, “If we can’t do even this — if we can’t follow through on a project so obviously needed, so clearly in the interests of the state and the nation — what hope is there for America?”

But no. He went ahead and killed the tunnel.

Transit Economics

The usual suspects on the comment board are, inevitably, arguing that rail transit should pay for itself. The obvious response is that road transit doesn’t; why should only public transit have to self-finance, when private vehicles generally drive on free roads built and maintained out of taxes?

But in a way that misses the larger point: urban transportation is an area in which we know that market prices bear very little relationship to true social costs. Even if you ignore environmental impacts and the national security implications of oil imports, the fact is that driving in an urban area, especially in rush hour, imposes huge congestion externalities on other people. And I mean huge: Felix Salmon had a nice piece last year putting the external cost you impose on other people by driving into lower Manhattan at $160 a day. (I can’t find the reference, but Dave Barry once had an “ask Mr. Question Authority” about how long it takes to drive across Manhattan during rush hour. The answer was that nobody has ever succeeded in driving across Manhattan during rush hour.)

Now, Econ 101 says that the first-best answer to these externalities is to make people pay these social costs; if we did, New Jersey Transit could charge much higher fares! But since that isn’t going to happen — at best, we may someday get a modest congestion charge — we’re into second-best territory.

And rail transit takes people off the roads, thereby yielding a large benefit that doesn’t show in NJT’s books.

So anyone who tries to make this into some kind of issue of principle — we should never, ever subsidize any form of transit — is just out of touch both with economic analysis and with the realities

[NYC Liberal]

7. "[progressives] want the services, and want OTHER people to pay"

That comment is funny when you consider which states GET the most in federal funding and which PAY OUT the most:


States Receiving Most in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:

1. D.C. ($6.17) (Blue)
2. North Dakota ($2.03) (Red)
3. New Mexico ($1.89) (Blue)
4. Mississippi ($1.84) (Red)
5. Alaska ($1.82) (Red)
6. West Virginia ($1.74) (Red)
7. Montana ($1.64) (Red)
8. Alabama ($1.61) (Red)
9. South Dakota ($1.59) (Red)
10. Arkansas ($1.53) (Red)

States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:

1. New Jersey ($0.62) (Blue)
2. Connecticut ($0.64) (Blue)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68) (Red)
4. Nevada ($0.73) (Red)
5. Illinois ($0.77) (Blue)
6. Minnesota ($0.77) (Blue)
7. Colorado ($0.79) (Red)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79) (Blue)
9. California ($0.81) (Blue)
10. New York ($0.81) (Blue)

[depakid]

8. See also: Krugman Railing Against Rail

Seems like he anticipated these sorts of reactions.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x260597

Few things are more irrational than Republican's and their jihad against public transportation.

Should be interesting to watch what happens as petrol prices rise toward $10 per gallon. Who wants to bet that these same people will be screaming about how the government should have seen it coming and built MORE of it- and are "failures" for not doing so?