John Stahl quoted a newspaper writer:
The cities aren't doing this for free. They tax their citizens (and visitors are taxed more than citizens) to provide these allegedly nice services. Do you really want your cities expanding their budgets and spending on things that commercial vendors are happy to compete to do? Perhaps they should go build levees or something that others don't want to do.
Why is wi-fi on the bus good for citizens who don't ride, or don't have laptops? For you left-thinkers out there, why are your cities catering to the wealthier bus riders? Why not free coffee, of value to all bus riders? (Dallas tried that trick in the 1970s, but people still drove to work.)
When foreign governments subsidize industry, many of you call it "dumping" and protest it. But if Seattle does the same thing, again depriving someone of a job, you call it good.
The only "fair" thing is to allow competition from all providers and for government to step back and try to do well in the few areas we entrust to it. If a city prevents competition, the solution isn't letting only the city compete: it's real competition.
*sigh*=John= snipped-for-privacy@jshelton.com