01-30-2018, 02:29 PM
(01-30-2018, 02:10 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: User pay means there is a direct link between a payment and a usage. Ontarians all fund OHIP, but by and large our health care is not user pay, because it is, largely, free. Paying for gas regardless of how fuel-efficient your vehicle is, what types of roads you use, how much wear you cause on them, let alone talking about general taxes going towards roads, is a false narrative. People who drive tend to buy fuel (hello, Tesla), which has a fuel tax, but in no way is there any connection to their usage of the gas (boats, lawnmowers, actual car usage), the roads used, or where the money goes. Until you either put tolls in place or GPS systems in place, people who drive may pay money they *think* is a usage fee, but has no real connection.
Cyclists pay zero user fees, as do pedestrians. Transit users explicitly pay a toll: pay $X for 90 minutes/1 day/1 month of usage. That's a direct user fee, and the only transportation method in the region that has one.
None of this addresses my point. Nor does it contradict that its is just wrong to say "Drivers fund our local roads to around 0% or so.".
Like I said to ijmorlan. If you're being precise in how you're using user-pay then the statement above doesn't logically follow. Because, of course, there are lots of ways for people to pay for stuff besides a strict user-pay method.
This point is independent of the fact that its also a lie from a purely technical point of view because of things like the gas tax.