One of the things Americans fail to understand, because nobody tells them and politicians don't want them to know, is that the government can spend $10k on someone or something now (e.g., UBI, healthcare) and save itself hundreds of thousands in the future -- or even "profit" in the sense of higher productivity and tax revenues.

Instead, we live in a country that insists on spending $150 million on cops to prevent $104,000 in lost subway fares.

@gwynnion
Germany implemented a program where you pay $58 dollars a month for unlimited public transportation. You have to pay extra for the super high speed trains, but all the regional trains, all the u-bahns, etc are now flat rate. Car driving is down by half. And this had a point related to your post by I have a migraine so I can’t remember it. Maybe something about investing in community. Because collective sighing and shrugging about late trains definitely builds a little community on the platform.