Should public transportation be free?

[Belacqua]

Capitalism is by its very natue a system with a short term horizon and one that ignores any external costs.

As I am fond of saying, it is the best economic system apart from all the others.

One thing that will be difficult to overcome: decades of advertising propaganda telling us that the right car makes us cool, and that cars are symbols of freedom. (Symbols of freedom that you have to labor half your life to pay for.)

There's no capitalist incentive to persuade people that cars should be thought of like wheelchairs -- necessary for those who need them, but not something a free person would choose.

[This sounds better when I say it in Japanese, since a car is kuruma 車, and a wheelchair is a kuruma-isu 車椅子 -- car-chair.]