The first people pay the the roads so everyone can use it

if we reset road costs from right now, the people using the roads have got a lot for free from general taxation… i think it’s fair that their current payment - rego, fuel excise, etc - covers both maintenance and investment… the original investment has already been paid many times over by other people

The first people pay the the roads so everyone can use it

roads exist… i think everyone here isn’t arguing for reparations, just “for the future”

if you a want the fire truck to get to your burning house doing 50mph you need to help with roads

okay but that’s the beauty of currency: the fire department pays for roads like everyone else, and that means the fire department budget gets increased, and probably taxes to match (though overall eliminating taxes to cover roads would probably come out in the wash mostly)… i don’t think anyone here is against paying a bit to ensure emergency services can fulfil their mission, but paying for roads is an indirect way of doing that

what if there’s a cheaper way of providing emergency services? in the case where we are subsidising roads, we’re artificially saying almost that the fire department must use them… to do anything else would be a cost, where roads are free… the fire department like anyone else should pay for their costs, and find the most efficient solutions

Again I’m asking for common sense.

no, you’re asking for status quo… if you took all the money allocated to roads and either gave tax cuts (which would mostly get gobbled up by increases in goods to cover the cost of transport), or redirect to emergency services (which would go toward paying for roads that they use), then people have the choice to buy goods and services that don’t use roads rather than artificially making roads the cheap option