hermitage
Premium
join:2004-12-10
usa
 ·AT&T Southeast
 ·Charter Pipeline
| What if we spent our money more wisely...
i pay about $100 every month for my cell phone service.
as i look around i see that most folks across a very broad range of income levelss have cell phones.
this article (from a year ago!) says that 82% of americans, 250 million people, use cell phones.
»www.gearlog.com/2007/11/us_cellp···tops.php
250 million * $100/ month = $ 25 BILLION dollars a month.
$25 Billion a month!!
that is a staggering sum of money. and it would surely pay for state-of-the-art rail systems.
if we also trade our starbuck's coffee along with our cellphones, we could have the trickest system ever conceived! (FREE coffee would easily be covered!)
trade cable tv, and we could have a fleet of fuel cell powered hover craft to take us back and forth to the grocery and office!! |
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grobinette
Premium,MVM
join:2001-01-27
Springfield, VA
clubs:
 ·Verizon FIOS
| There is no easy Utopian answer to fixing all the problems we have to fix. There are a lot of things we can do or do better but I don't think giving up cell phones and Starbucks is even on the list.
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Team Discovery |
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KoolMoe
Aw Man
Premium
join:2001-02-14
Annapolis, MD
clubs: | Between the three cellphones in our house, we spend about $50/month, so I wouldn't assume $100 per person in your calcs.
BUT I get, and generally agree with, your point!
KM |
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wmcbrine
Touched by His Noodly Appendage
join:2002-12-30
Laurel, MD
edit:
July 17th, @02:05PM
| reply to hermitage
I don't see swapping cell phones for transit as a very sensible trade-off, especially as I hate to leave the house without my phone. But, certainly you can pay less. Mine is a prepaid phone, and it comes to about $7.50 a month.
Also, it seems to me that you've conflated a bunch of small purchases by individuals with monolithic massive investments. The sums may come out the same, but they aren't easily interchangeable.
--
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 |
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hermitage
Premium
join:2004-12-10
usa
·AT&T Southeast
·Charter Pipeline
edit:
July 18th, @10:03AM
| reply to grobinette
at $60/month * 12 months * 8 years * 250million subscribers... the number is $1.56 TRILLION dollars
We Americans have the cash to make our lives better!
we really are wealthy! we just spend it on cell phones, cable tv, and starbucks. :edit: AND GASOLINE AND INSURANCE!! :edit:
if we focused our spending on solutions we'd have it made!
and these solutions are DURABLE.
people say we can't have excellent rail systems (like Germany or France) because it's too expensive. Well, $1.56 trillion bucks will buy a lot of rail. no development costs, the trains are already out there. just buy them!
add some of the cable tv money, and starbucks money and you easlity get to $3-5 TRILLION available over ten years.
(i know we're paying close to $100/month for cable!) |
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NOVA_Guy
Embarassed to live in a blue state
Premium
join:2002-03-05
Purcellville, VA
| reply to hermitage
It's just plain scary to even fathom that people think like this. Why should anyone be expected to sacrifice lifestyle for some worthless crap that only a few people find to be of value? I'll take my cell phones, cable TV, high speed internet, SUV, and anything else that's enjoyable over public transit, rail systems that nobody will use, or any other public good.
Enjoyment of hard earned money in the form of higher standards of living is what ultimately drives America to work so hard. Without the "toys" and "perks" it makes little sense to put forth the effort to drive forward. And I'd hardly call being crammed in with a bunch of people on public transit a perk-- especially when comparing it to driving into work in your own luxury SUV.
--
Some terrorists don't wear rags on their head, go without showers for weeks, and smell like camel crap. Instead they live in America and support Barack Obama for president. |
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
·Cox HSI
·Speakeasy
| said by NOVA_Guy  :I'd hardly call being crammed in with a bunch of people on public transit a perk-- especially when comparing it to driving into work in your own luxury SUV. I dunno. You obviously don't really commute in an area with real traffic.
Given the choice between rolling out of my house and walking a couple minutes to a convenient train and riding relatively unfettered to within a few feet to a few blocks of my place of work or, having to fight an hour-plus through traffic to travel eleven miles ...guess which one seems like a perk?
And, by the way, for the past 31 days, I've been doing the public transit thing on the DC metro (customer site is in the city, 11 miles from my house, as the crow flies). So, it's a real-life comparison. I definitely wouldn't want to have to drive to their location - even in a luxury SUV.
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The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell |
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NOVA_Guy
Embarassed to live in a blue state
Premium
join:2002-03-05
Purcellville, VA
| I drive from Purcellville into Arlington for work every day, so I think I know a thing or two about traffic. And I've also spent a few days crammed in on the orange line on Metro. Given a choice between the two, I'll take my BMW any day. iPod, satellite radio, heated seats in the winter, and I get to enjoy a nice beverage on the way to work... All without having to deal with an unreasonably horrid public transit system.
You can have Metro if you like. I still prefer going to work in style. To each his own, I guess...
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Some terrorists don't wear rags on their head, go without showers for weeks, and smell like camel crap. Instead they live in America and support Barack Obama for president. |
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