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Text File  |  1992-07-25  |  1.2 KB  |  29 lines
  1. Newsgroups: sci.physics
  2. Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU!CSD-NewsHost!jmc
  3. From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
  4. Subject: Re: Cost of public vs. private transportation
  5. In-Reply-To: MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu's message of Thu, 23 Jul 1992 13:58:38 GMT
  6. Message-ID: <JMC.92Jul24233004@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>
  7. Sender: news@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU
  8. Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
  9. Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
  10. References: <1682D8C4F.MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu>
  11. Date: 24 Jul 92 23:30:04
  12. Lines: 15
  13.  
  14. Many years ago, public transportation was profitable.  One of the
  15. problems that killed its profitability was regulation of fares.  It
  16. was always possible for a lawyer or politician to gain a reputation
  17. by fighting the evil railroads.  They fought the evil railroads in
  18. the public interest to the point of driving every one of the eastern
  19. railroads bankrupt.
  20.  
  21. I would bet that public transportation is profitable in some parts
  22. of the world and even in some parts of the U.S.  Greyhound made
  23. money, at least until the bargain air fares came along.
  24. --
  25. John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
  26. *
  27. He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
  28.  
  29.