WOODLANDS EXPRESS TAX DOLLAR BLOWHOLE

If The Woodlands Township has an economics department with its own reality show then this might be the intro,

You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land ( The Woodlands ) whose boundaries are that of imagination ( and laws of economics don’t matter). That’s the ( Woodlands Express ) signpost up ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!

Here’s the report  Woodlands raising bus fares after riders decline    Woodland Express ridership is down 4.1% over last year. Ridership is at 61% of capacity. Even with proposed $1.00 increase losses are projected for five to seven years. Fares were previously increased by $2.00 in 2013.  Management analysis includes “factoring in a 10 percent decline in ridership”.

The best line in the article tells us “about 45 percent of our riders come from outside The Woodlands“.

I think these guys, Don Norrell ( $231K) President , Monique Sharp ( $156K) Assistant GM Finance and Stephen LaRue ($86K) Transit Planner have missed their calling, that of Acting!  I’m assuming they held a straight face when they delivered these numbers. But that’s not really fair since the board is the one that approved all this.

Economics in One Lesson

Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993) wrote the classic Economics in One Lesson ( free online ) where he explained supply and demand this way –

Prices are fixed through the relationship of supply and demand and in turn affect supply and demand. When people want more of an article, they offer more for it. The price goes up. This increases the profits of those who make the article. Because it is now more profitable to make that article than others, the people already in the business expand their production of it, and more people are attracted to the business. This increased supply then reduces the price and reduces the profit margin, until the profit margin on that article once more falls to the general level of profits (relative risks considered) in other industries. Or the demand for that article may fall; or the supply of it may be increased to such a point that its price drops to a level where there is less profit in making it than in making other articles; or perhaps there is an actual loss in making it. In this case the “marginal” producers, that is, the producers who are least efficient, or whose costs of production are highest, will be driven out of business altogether. The product will now be made only by the more efficient producers who operate on lower costs. The supply of that commodity will also drop, or will at least cease to expand.

I personally like the part where is say “producers who are least efficient, or whose costs of production are highest, will be driven out of business altogether”.

And that is completely true until government gets involved like in the Woodlands where ridership by constituents of the Township board is almost non existent  ( i.e. 55% of 60% capacity )and declining ridership in general should signal to normal people its time to put a fork in it. But you know the story. When other peoples money in the form of FREE federal grants and sales tax dollars are involved then those elected BA, MA, PhD  possessing geniuses who hold themselves out as “conservative” decide theft is OK, then it must be OK I guess.

So much for believers in the free market and the invisible hand of individual actions when you can counteract the economic writing on the wall with plundered funds, of course they believe, same way they believe in the tooth fairy.

We need an APP for that.

The  Township has just announced  money invested in a 311 mobile app. I know how they love to spend so I have a transportation Socialism APP that is bound to thrill their heart.

Introducing SCRU-BER. The mobile app SCRU-BER  is completely different from the well know ride sharing app that allows riders to contract with drivers using their own vehicles and save them money while simultaneously pleasing customers with is simplicity and efficiency. SCRU-BER is the ultimate tool for voluntary transportation socialism.  Here’s how.

1. Would be Woodlands Express Rider from anywhere ( Woodlands constituency not required ) installs the SCRU-BER app.
2. Boards Woodlands Express and pays whatever they can afford, ( no means test )
3.  Deficit is automatically charged proportionately to VISA/MC on file  of pool of Woodlands Constituents and Township Board members that love transportation socialism. ( Completely Voluntary )

There you have it. I offer this advice completely free to the Township Board and Management.