Wow, it took a long time to find something worth speaking about. I finally did happen to come across something that caught my eye though. The Senators of our fine state have approved the construction of any new toll roads in the future through 2015. As long as the burden falls not heavily on the taxpayers and the state, the roads can be built as soon as the lowest bidder can start.
The city of Austin is becoming more and more like Houston everyday. It used to be a smaller city, where I knew the locations of many ponds and places to play. Most of those places are gone now. I guess it's an inevitability that all good things should come to an end, but honestly, I am furious that the toll roads we have now are making billions. Getting around in Austin in hard if you don't take these roads. There are unnecessary lights, and seemingly dumb intersections. It really feels like the goal of the city was to make taking any other path, unbearable. For example, if one were so inclined to take a toll road to Lakeline Mall, the travel time is around 10 minutes from my house. If not, all the lights and obstructions make the trip around 45 minutes. Is it worth it to save the money on gas and time to pay the $.75 cents? Probably, but I'm sick of these politicians thinking about ways they can gouge more money out of my pocket. I've never taken a toll road and I never will. It's just unfortunate that our governments care so much about something so little. I realize now that it IS too much to expect anything from the television watching public. That leaves us with maybe 15% of the population. I'm all about standing up for my state and country, but I've had just about all I can take. The ones who made this for us did not intend for these things to occur as they have. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Revolution is imminent. I feel it coming closer everyday. People are going to be scared for sure. But I've lost all hope for the country, and I'm beginning to lose hope for the species. Far stretch from being tolled to use roads that should be free, I know. But when shit hits the fan, I'm going to be on the front lines, dying for what I believe to be right.
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While your idealized Austin of parks and ponds is maybe a little over the top--my childhood Austin had parks full of junkies and ponds full of empties--at first I was very much inclined to agree with your assessment that toll roads are just another insidious plan to rob the citizenry and enrich the government.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I then realized that the government really does need all the help it can get, especially in certain areas, ie education; that coupled with the fact that I never get near the toll roads made me think that they're certainly an obnoxious tax system, but a very useful one.
That's about when I slapped myself in the face and snapped out of it. I doubt that the government will send the toll money, which is in the "holy crap" amount, to education, or medicine, or anything else which deserves it. The same four or five shadowy individuals who really run this state will take that money, in the form of contracts and kickbacks, and use it to expand their own already obscene wealth, power, and influence.
Revolution, however, is not the answer. It could be in the right circumstances, but ask yourself, Billy T, "Who else would fight?" Most of the public is a zombie mass. You would strike for everything good and right and worth living for and American, let's say, bacon, and the media would turn it around and make you look like a terrorist, alienating the revolutionaries from the general population even more and cutting your potential recruiting down even further than it would have been.
My analysis of this situation, of which toll roads are emblematic, is one of sincere and heartfelt apathy. This system is already screwed. Regardless of what we do, revolution or no, it will eventually fail, spectacularly and violently. We've reached critical mass, and there is no longer anything to be done. Revolution over the toll roads, or in general, will speed up this process of self-destruction, but will not affect it.