Are you upset with the author, or the government. Your post doesn't elaborate very much. If it's with the government, I agree, the government usually runs things very inefficiently. However, the author seem to suggest that there was something wrong with paying laid off workers severance pay. Granted, six years severance pay seems a little much(then again, how much is severance pay? Is it a percentage of one's normal earnings, and if so, what percentage?), but it's better than private companies cutting people at a whim. If instead the workers were immediately set up with a similar, nearby, and equally or better paying job, I wouldn't be so opposed to the author's railing against the severance pay. But does anyone really think that a capitalist, government or private, will do that? I do agree that some of the routes do seem wasteful with all the subsidies needed to keep them open. It's truly unfortunate that more people don't take advantage of public transportation. They're going to have to if this world is going to survive. I'll point out, however, that the Cato group is a libertarian thinktank(I like libertarians social policies, but I hate their economic ones); not being one to fling labels around, look at the slogan at the top of your browser window when you visit their page; Limited Government, Free Markets. Yes, communism advocates the eventually withering away of government, but not at this stage in society, as the libertarians want. And of course, we all know how great "free" markets are.
