Essentially a disservice

 

The last time I wrote about public transit was February of this year, and in Toronto, Canada's largest city, the only thing that has changed is the city's administration. I think the change was for the better, but that doesn't mean I agree with the administration on this (or any) issue. The new mayor of Toronto wants to declare the transit system an essential service, effectively eliminating the right to strike for TTC employees during a labour dispute. The argument for, centres around avoiding a citywide disruption by holding the riders hostage, the argument against points to the fact that compulsory arbitration generally favours the employees and usually hurts municipal budgets or requires a fare hike. With only those alternatives many will say lets declare this an essential service and ensure the smooth operation of the city, no matter what the cost. Of course that attitude has escalated budgets, taxes, debt, entitlements, etc.
What has not changed since the election, is that the TTC is still a monopoly in cahoots with its unions! What needs to be asked is: how difficult is it to drive a TTC vehicle? Does driving require years of schooling, or can just about anyone who can drive do that job? The job requires a Grade 12 education and a 30 day training course, and pay starts at about $22.56 per hour rising to $29.43 after 2 years or just over $60,000 per year, not including overtime. A non-unionized truck driver gets about $18 per hour, a school-bus driver can make just over $16 per hour. Yes, truck drivers do not interact with riders, but the jobs are similar and in many instances the truck driver has a tougher more demanding job. The school bus driver also has a special responsibility. How to reduce the cost of TTC employee compensation?
Is it possible to automate some of the TTC jobs? Absolutely! For example, when was the last time you personally interacted with a bank teller to do your banking? I require a human bank employee maybe two or three times a year, at all other times my banking is done remotely by phone, computer or ATM. Are there TTC jobs that can be done by machine? Yes, but the important question is, is it possible to automate jobs and get around the public sector unions? I suspect automation will come eventually happen as it has in many other cities.
But I'm avoiding the elephant in the room. Is it possible to break up the TTC monopoly and give transit riders real choice? How about getting the city to sell the bus routes to a private company or consortium? The subway and streetcar lines may be kept in the public sector for the time being, those being the easiest to automate eventually. The private sector bus routes could become directly competitive with the remaining public system. TTC administrators would have less responsibility and need a much smaller budget. The two systems would operate in parallel, supporting one another where it was mutually advantageous. The private sector bus drivers could be offered a profit sharing deal, maybe shares in the company, dividends and other incentives. Is this crazy? Only if you are still stuck with the idea that government is there to solve all problems, look around, it's not working. Competition will improve transit, to consider anything else at this point is essentially a disservice to riders.    

Electric dreams, cold reality bites

That picture is the visual readout for the Chevy Volt on a cool late fall morning. Battery operated things don't work that well in cool/cold conditions, all Canadians know that, and electric cars of course run on batteries. If the temperature is less than minus 4 degrees Celsius (26F), the fossil fuel engine on the Volt comes on to help "condition" the battery, then shuts down after 3 or 4 minutes. The electric engine works optimally at 20 degrees Celsius (70F).
So as I look out on this frigid mid-December day, where I doubt that the temperature reached minus 12 Celsius (8F) with a minus 20C windchill, I wonder how the Volt would have performed. Probably not to well. The Volt doesn't like extremes of temperature, that is lower than minus 4C. Extremes!!
Gwyn Morgan has an interesting take on electric car dreams in the Globe today. I guess those booster cables will be really busy in the future. Can you boost an electric car?

Lights. Camera. Activism.

Those of you that have read Ayn Rand's epic novel Atlas Shrugged, may have heard rumblings of late, that we are in fact living the novel. Atlas is shrugging, the novel is prophetic!
I suspect Rand thought exactly that, when the novel was published 53 years ago, but who knows. Certainly there are aspects of today's news stories that resemble Atlas Shrugged, but thats true of Orwell's Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four and other dystopian fictions.
The people at the Ayn Rand Institute however, want to stir the pot a bit and possibly catalyze some action through activism. They have sponsored a short video contest, submissions have closed (Dec. 8/10), the purpose being to continue the current rumblings. Why not? It's a great idea, some of the videos are very clever and the good news is, you may still vote for your favourite until Dec. 22nd, 2010. All the videos are located here, all deserve commendation, and I have posted one of my favourites below.
The entire enterprise anticipates Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 (the movie), scheduled for release on April 15th, 2011. Isn't that income-tax-deadline-day in the U.S.? Coincidence? 

The myth of deflation and wisdom of economics professors

Tugwit-the-Terrible strikes again.
The fear of falling prices and thus the fear of a currency that could buy tomorrow, more than it bought yesterday (deflation), keeps government central bankers awake at night. Imagine borrowing a ton of money (like most countries already have), then having to repay it? Its much easier to repay the money if you could print some of it in your basement and scam the lenders. The sad truth is, that IS the job of central bankers like Ben Bernanke in the US (whoa to the Chinese). That's called inflation, and despite what Mr. Bernanke says, he LOVES inflation, he needs inflation, and will do anything to encourage it.
One of the first things central bankers do before they warm up the printing presses, is to hint to the media that deflation is possible, and that it is bad. I'm not sure why its bad, I like the fact that my computer today is faster, better, and CHEAPER, than my previous computer. I think that is deflationary, in fact my standard of living improves as prices deflate! Don't they? I'm confused, so I will let the people at the von Mises Institute explain.
After you have looked at that, watch this from Mr. Tugwit's Channel. Tugwit pulls no punches!