• db2@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    So many here are so happily accepting the very concept of a toll road, it’s kind of gross.

    • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      would you rather have general taxes be higher? someone has to pay for road upkeep.

      in my state we refuse to raise the gas tax, so tolls go up, registration fees, etc.

      we had a law that pegged the gas tax to inflation, and a ballot measure removed it, because the citizens are idiots. so now we all pay like double our registration fees.

      • JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
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        18 hours ago

        would you rather have general taxes be higher?

        Yes. Our toll roads in Oklahoma are in terrible shape and are expensive to use.

        • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          me too, but 80% of my fellow citizens don’t agree. they think taxes are too high and want them lower.

          but also we need to spend more on schools, infrastucture, etc…

          almost like they can’t do basic math…

      • Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de
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        19 hours ago

        Higher taxes or having to stop and queue every couple of kilometers?

        Higher taxes obviously, my time is worth a lot more.

        • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          They don’t do it like that where I live anymore. There are transponders you can get to pay for tolls automatically or they send you a bill based on your license plate with overhead traffic cameras and receivers that don’t affect traffic in any way. They’ve been doing this for over a decade, well before modern license plate readers. It’s obviously a little grosser now , knowing how these types of cameras are oppressive, but at this point, I think they’re at the toll booths anyway, so the only thing you’re saving by going for old fashioned toll booths is a dangerous, physically harmful job.

        • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          huh, where do you live? tolls are all automatic at full speed now. and have been so for well over a decade.

          last time i had to stop for toll booth was probably 2010, and even back then they already had a automated lane, but it was 20mph, not 65+

      • Psythik@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        Yes. Higher taxes for the rich are always the answer. They alone can afford to cover the costs. For anyone making $1 mil/yr USD or less, your taxes from all sources should be $0. The lowest paid citizens are the hardest workers; we deserve a break.

        • db2@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          1 million is too high. Start at 250K as the lowest taxed (not counting below that which is zero) and it goes up proportionally from there. And no cap in it either, if someone makes a trillion their tax should be over 100%.

      • db2@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        And we can assume all those roads with the privately owned toll booths are in perfect upkeep? Pay that toll like a good corporate citizen, hard work is its own reward, etc etc ad nauseum.

      • cb900f_bodhi@fedinsfw.app
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        20 hours ago

        Not OC but I agree with him. Where I live, the toll roads are owned by private corporations, some of them entirely foreign owned corporations, and the rates are obscenely high. It isn’t about maintaining the road; instead it is about rent seeking behavior and maximizing shareholder profits. That is abhorrent to me. Public goods should be owned by the public.

        • db2@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          We already pay the taxes. Tolls are on top of that to private corporations and that money is kept not used for road repair. Don’t talk about things you don’t know.

    • MoffKalast@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      In most countries, every highway is a toll road instead of taxing fuel. Though an increasing number use a prepaid vignette or plate based mail billing instead, not actual physical tool booths like we’re in the 80s.