Regarding today’s front-page story on bus service, a few thoughts:

(1) Why do some folks expect the government to drive them to work?

(2) Why do some businesses expect the government to bring workers to them?

(3) If there’s a labor shortage in, say, Short Pump, and there is a pool of available labor in the city, then it seems clear at least one of two things should happen—and probably both:

(a) Workers should move closer to the jobs, and

(b) Companies should pay workers enough to be able to afford cars.

Der Bartster asked:

“(1) Why do some folks expect the government to drive them to work?

“(2) Why do some businesses expect the government to bring workers to them?

“(3) If there’s a labor shortage in, say, Short Pump, and there is a pool of available labor in the city, then it seems clear at least one of two things should happen—and probably both:

“(a) Workers should move closer to the jobs, and

“(b) Companies should pay workers enough to be able to afford cars.“

Very sane questions. The answer to why the commonsense remedies to the problem have yet to be noticed by our institutions is rooted in a principle illustrated in a “Simpsons” episode.

Homer decides to run for public works commissioner with the campaign motto of, “Can’t Somebody Else Do It?“

The incumbent commissioner, voiced by Steve Martin, tells everybody the truth and is defeated in a landslide. Homer then spends his entire annual budget on the provision of an insane level of public works service, especially in regards to garbage hauling. When the budget runs out, he gets contracts from other localities to bring their garbage to Springfield, paying out the contract profits to the best sanitation engineers money can buy.

When Springfield is overrun with other people’s garbage, the town simply moves to a new and fresher location.

Everybody wants somebody else to do it. T’was ever thus. And everybody wants somebody else to pay for it too ...

Mark

Dear Friends:

  For the illogical extreme case of this situation, one needs look no further than the late, unlamented USSR. In National Geographic, it was reported in the 1990s that the Aral Sea had shrunk to levels which killed all the fish through the increased concentrations of salts. The water had been diverted to grow cotton in adjacent Soviet Republics, with the result that a once-thriving fishing industry on the Sea had died.

So here were all these canning operations, stranded miles from the shore of a sea in which there were no more fish to process. The clever Soviets did what persons of their limited wit always do: made the situation worse.

Instead of moving the people somewhere they could earn a living off local resources, the USSR flew down tons of Baltic Sea catch each day to be processed in the canning plants.

The expense was exhorbitant, but the canneries were saved. The consumer got subsidezed foodstuffs at low, low prices, the cannery workers kept their jobs, and except for the environmental damage and general inefficiency of such an operation, everybody was happy.

And, of course, it being the USSR, nobody dared notice - our loud - that the Emperor was buck naked.

No wonder the Soviet workers used to joke, “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.“

That’s an extreme example, but the essentials are the same.

Carpooling is the only reasonable remedy, but that requires workers to act voluntarily in their own interests.

And what’s the fun of that? Better for some level of government to apply an expensive, inefficient fix that requires no effort at all on the part of the affected workers.

“Bad scene, Bix.“

Mark Dorroh

Larry,

Give the devil his due.

You are correct that carpooling is unreliable. We take people who are on short end of the economic tether, ready to fall off the bandwagon, and make it worse by insisting they find transportation. However….

Still, I think folks make do. They find friends and relatives to help out. Backups. Worst case, they go from one deadend job to another deadend job. If they are really good, their employers may chip in and help out, or at least be understanding.

I just don’t think one evil solves another evil. Bus Service in low density areas is a Rube Goldberg device designed to be complicated but unhelpful.

Hey Larry! What difference does it make? If someone wants to work, they will find a way to get there.

Some people do have it easier than others—it is not the role of government to equalize all situations. Plus, it is not the responsibility of the taxpayer to pay for all possible misfortunes one encounters in a lifetime.

Patrick recounts, “I had to provide my own transportation to work.“ (Bart Hinkle couldn’t have used a better line…)

Patrick, may I safely assume though that you had a place to live during that time…that you at least had some support from parents? Just a little? Was it truly an up-hill, grueling battle against all the odds?

Unfortunately no one has ever paid me to get to work or provided transportation. For some unknown reason that was always left up to me—to spell it out—I had to provide my own transportation to work. Apparently that is no longer the case in the 21st Century. I was born too early.

Now, I could TELL the employer that if they wanted me to work for them, then I want a transportation allowance paid weekly or a door-to-door taxi/bus so I can be there on time. OR, my local government has the responsibility to transport me to and from work, making sure that at get there on time at no cost to me. Otherwise screw them, I will not work.

Gosh did I miss out: promiscuous women, no studying college degree, and free transportation to and from work!!!!

A.A.D.: Read your replies to Patrick. What’s really broke with our current ‘system’ is the lack of choice (of jobs) that people have. There really are no choices for those unable to drive. If you live on Jefferson Davis Hwy in Chesterfield then you are limited to being a cashier in convenience store, for example. Really—folks in the Richmond area who do not drive, or, have only limited access to driving for whatever reason, have just as much as choice of a career as the people in China do.

A good Public Transpo system opens the doors for those willing to expand their lives. I think we need more tax-paying citizens—not less.

“Oh wait a minute. Unemployment in this are is already low. That tells me people are finding jobs one way or the other. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.“ (Ed)

No, what’s broken is the method in which the “unemployment rate” is calculated.  Pass me the screwdriver…

“I guess my memory is bad. Seems to me that at one time there was mass movement of immigrants from the East to West. I think they settled the states west of the Mississippi—hmmm. Did blacks use to move North for jobs? Ever been transfered by your company?“ (Patrick)

A bit of a stretch don’t you think?... Moving to another state or coast for a new job can not be compared to being forced to move from county to county within your own city just to maintain employment as was suggested in Bart Hinkle’s original comment.

“Carpooling instead of a massive bureaucratic bus service that loses money like a sieve.“ (Ed)

Carpooling is not dependable. It only works as long as the person chooses to drive, or as long as their vehicle doesn’t break down, or as long as their kid doesn’t come-down with some acute viral infection and they have to take the day off. Public Transpo is always there! Companies want & need people who can be there everyday. Many people WANT to be there everyday.

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