Daily Kos Wants Us All to Fly the Friendly Skies for Free

March 31st, 2013 3:34 PM

The socialists at the Daily Kos are idealists, not pragmatists. For example, the blogger known as “Troubadour” thinks everything must be “public” and “enable and promote the rights and access of each individual citizen, since otherwise government merely functions as a monopolistic private entity rather than a representative of all.”

In Kos-land, everything is public. Nothing is really privately owned. Take this example: this blogger not only thinks that every health procedure should be free, but there should be free airline travel:

Speaking of which, why in the hell do we not have public air transit?  If we are not going to be serious about building high-speed rail, then at the very least we can provide a public air travel service.  Our taxes and debt build airports, funded the aeronautical research that made these aircraft possible, run the FAA, and also track and manage air traffic. 

We may not be entitled to sip scotch in 1st class, but we are entitled to freely use (in both the sense of "unhindered" and "without charge") the infrastructure we own.  In other words, there should be public airlines.  It's not as if they would (or even could) be any less comfortable than the coach sections of private airliners, and we would at least no longer be charged at a markup for the "privilege" of being treated like sardines.  Recognizing this, of course, means "No Fly Lists" are illegitimate, but if you seriously think someone is a terrorist, deport them, charge them with something, or accept the risk like a citizen of a free society.

Upshot: Public transit has to be free of charge, and access allocated only by the non-market economic mechanisms - queue, lottery, or command, or some combination thereof.  Moreover, there needs to be public air travel.  We built the air infrastructure, we own it, it's ours, and we each have an absolute right to use it.  It should be practical to travel from one corner of this country to another without paying a single dime toward transit.

Public means free: "How exactly is public transit 'public' if the people who use it have to pay for it?"