What if our highways consisted of only expensive, private toll roads?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

But then the country as a whole realized that other countries have fantastic, free, interconnected super highways that get all people from place to place faster, cheaper and better than our crappy system of disconnected private toll roads. Then imagine that the President and Congress tell you we can't go for government run and built superhighways because we are "used" to the crappy private toll roads and besides, what will happen to the owners of the toll roads and the toll booth collectors?

Why does anyone accept an excuse that because we have a crappy system and have always had a crappy system, that we must continue to have a crappy system? Why are the owners of the toll roads more important than the users of the roads who far, far outnumber them?

[MADem]

1. What? That isn't the case?

Geez, go from DC to New England on 95 on a regular basis, and it sure as hell FEELS that way!

:rofl:

[madinmaryland]

4. I-95 is horrid from DC all the way to Boston. See my sig line..

I've lived off of I-95 for the last 25 years, in CT and MD.

My God, you have to pay 10 bucks just to get through Delaware (10 miles)!!

[MADem]

6. Hahahahahaha!! Great sig line! nt

[vadawg]

13. its worse south of DC, the mixing bowl is the devils tumble dryer

[madinmaryland]

23. Yeah, that part is horrid also! I always hate having to go

down to clients in NoVa! The drive can take either 45 minutes or 2 hours!!

[vadawg]

24. NOVA sucks for traffic, but i gotta say the maryland drivers who drive into VA suck more

even when i lived in Maryland i used to marvel at the three lane lane change without indicators, lol

[madinmaryland]

25. Actually it an East Coast thing. I have seen that from Mass to DC and NoVa.

:shrug:

[Historic NY]

22. Your Papers & your Money please...the I-95 border crossings...

its like being held up in both directions. :yoiks:

[vadawg]

2. problem is there is a fear we will go from crappy toll highways to the crappy narrow roads of somewh

somewhere like the UK, or even worse the snow covered, yeti infested roads (or tundra lanes) of canada.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. A side note, do you realize that the Internet is in reality a private network?

[MADem]

7. Thank heavens for that! It's bad enough the gubmint is sniffing all over it like a stinky cheap

suit!

[Posteritatis]

17. The internet is hardly "a" network anymore (nt)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

28. Really, anyone tell the Root node that?

Its a multiply redundant network, but its a single network...and a damn big one at that.

[nashville_brook]

5. like, in Orlando. the Expressway Authority is openly corrupt. they're like the mafia.

just doubled tolls and announced they weren't going to finish the single largest exchange in the city (I-4 to 408).

i can totally imagine Orlando making the bogus argument you mention. and it's a wonderful comparison.

[demodonkey]

8. Yes, we already have such a system for the "road" to HEALTHCARE in this country!

A lot of us can't afford the "tolls" (health insurance premiums) so we simply stay home and suffer. We should have a wide highway to healthcare paid for by taxes, just as we do for our actual streets and roads.

Good analogy!

[GoesTo11]

9. That's really an excellent analogy.

Helps visualize what's going on. Nice job.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. And we have the infrastructure in place as we speak - Medicare!! nt.

[Cleita]

16. Exactly, and as weakened as Medicare has become with Republicans

trying to shoot holes in it and refusing to update the fee schedule, it's still the best health care I have ever been covered with. If the fee schedule were updated and the gaps in coverage plugged it still would be far less expensive to deliver than any private plan, whose administrative costs are one in every three dollars, and denial of coverage for the rest of it for solid profits on Wall Street.

[katandmoon]

11. Because the owners of the toll roads have political influence (i.e. $$$) and the users don't

[customerserviceguy]

12. Consider this

Let's say you have enough money for the toll roads. You'll favor that system.

I came here a bit more than two years ago from the Pacific Northwest, which does not have toll roads. Sometimes there are toll bridges, but they remove the tolls when the construction costs are paid for (unlike East Coast bridges). Yes, there are tolls to ride the ferries, but everybody knows that fuel is being expended to get them from point A to point B.

I come here, and I see all sorts of toll roads, but then I see the beauty of them. We had massive traffic jams in the major cities of the Pacific NW, and today, I can drive from my home to my job, a distance of 18.5 miles, in a mere twenty or twenty-five minutes from driveway to parking spot. In a similarly populated area of Seattle or Portland, that just wouldn't be possible.

The Garden State Parkway that I travel on is also devoid of large trucks, which not only increases my average speed, but my safety, as well. The fifty cents each way is not that big of a deal, the only other way without the toll road is to go through every goofy ass town on an old road that dates from the days of the Revolutionary War. The stop-and-go nature of each town probably used to cost me way more than fifty cents worth of fuel.

Our current healthcare system is pretty much like that. Those who have decent jobs generally are satisfied with their healthcare insurance. As long as their employers are willing to pay the higher and higher premiums needed to cover the expenses of the uninsured who seek out the emergency rooms, the folks with the comfortable situations get to have short waits in doctors' offices, with no pain.

Your analogy provides an example of just how complex the problem is to solve.

[billyoc]

14. Because the President told them we don't want to start from scratch.

[Cleita]

18. We don't have to start from scratch. As another poster said, we

have Medicare and the bones of the system are already in place and there are experienced administrators to operate the plan. All we need is Congress to define who is covered and how the money will be collected and distributed.

[billyoc]

19. Obama's statement was in defense of the Insurance industry, though.

[Cleita]

21. Yes, I know and I wish someone would advise him otherwise. n/t

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

26. Don't you think he knows otherwise already, without being advised?

I do.

[Cleita]

27. He's listening to the Emmanuel brothers. Zeke Emmanuel wants to

completely privatize health care including Medicare and Medicaid. I hope he's listening to people on the other side of the issuetoo, but so far I'm not seeing it. Every time he talks about a strong public option, there are no details. I went through the Senate plan and there is only a small mention of extending Medicaid to needy families, no mention of Medicare, which is what is needed. I can't seem to find the 850 page House plan, only articles about it. If you have a link I would appreciate it.

[david13]

15. Well, let me see, the car is free, the gas is free, the insurance

is free, the tires and maintenance are free, but ... whoa, I gotta pay toll? !!!
Whoa, what's this world coming to?
dc

[H2O Man]

20. Right.

My house was a stage coach station on an early turnpike in NYS. Maybe I should put a booth at the end of my driveway, and collect a fee!

You make a valid point.