mastercheerios@xanga wrote up a really good
post about how the New York City Subway system (formally the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA) is going to
"phase out" student discounts and free fares to deal with growing budget concerns. I 100% agree with mastercheerio's outrage, and just wanted to add my two cents:
It's true that every increase in fare hurts our wallets a little more, but the end of student discounts is offensive for entirely different reasons. For me, this is just one example of a growing trend in government and government organizations where
people rely on students to get them out of debt. The other recent example I can think of is the proposal in Pittsburgh for a
1% tax on college tuition.
I mean, why students? College, high school, or younger, we're not exactly known to be drowning in funds, and it's not like we're the only ones who use the Subway (or, um, the city of Pittsburgh). Why don't we tax poor, defenseless baby animals while we're at it? I'm sure their bank account balances are similar.
I'll be the first to admit that the MTA's deficit is quite the conundrum. The organization
needs money to pay its employees (although 700 layoffs are scheduled) and make constant repairs and improvements. But there has to be a better way. Here are my suggestions:
- Throw a benefit. There have to be some rich people left in New York, right? If the MTA had a dinner or dance with expensive tickets, or maybe a charity auction, perhaps they could raise thousands of dollars.
- Or, if that's too risky, just increase everyone's fare. Singling out students is as arbitrary as singling out redheads, or tall people, or anything. If the MTA desperately needs funds, then they could temporarily or permanently increase all fare prices. At least that way it's the same for everyone.
Why do people keep asking students for money? What should the MTA do to solve its budget problem?Image Source
Comments (11)
I wish they would take your suggestions.
they know that certain students NEED transportation and that their parents can pay for them. they don't take into consideration that this might make it impossible for certain students to get to class. i know a bunch of my friends relied on the mta given cards to get to school and back. their parents couldn't afford to pay for it. and they certainly couldn't get a ride to school.
in my opinion they should make everyone pay a base coverage eg: $60 a month (i think the avg amount for a monthly ticket) and then let them all use it an unlimited amount. that way, it saves people time and the government money.
if i hadn't had the student metro cards, i would have NEVER ever ever been able to go to school. the department of education or somebody needs to fix this somehow. this is a major problem if over 500,000 kids won't be able to get to school.
The County in my area, runs a bus system, the local 4 year university was running a bus system. One day a light bulb clicked on, and some actually smart politicians, realized that it was pointless to run two seperate systems that went to the same area. The University charged all students a "Parking and transportation fee" and so if you wride the bus, or drive your car you pay one fee. Then out of the money collected fairly from all students, they gave a contracted amount to the county and the county hands out cards to all university students that allows the student to ride the bus for free whenever the student wants. This has been going so well, that some people are pushing for a similiar deal to be made with the local 2 year community college.
So, this is what I think MTA needs to do, contract with the local universities to take parking fees or other transportation fees the university charges students, and pay that to the city transportation fund, in exchange for discounted or free tickets that the students can use to ride to school.
I like your suggestions. :)
As for why they keep asking students for money...its simply because they know they can get away with it. If you want to go to school in Pittsburgh, you'll have to pay the tax whether you like it or not.
And, really, even though it is just a 1% tax, I'm betting that if it goes the way they are hoping that it will, the tax will certainly end up increasing. The 1% is probably just a trial run to see if they can get away with it, even if people don't like it.
Its the same with the MTA. They know they can get away with it, because whether you like it or not, the wide majority of people using the Subway have to whether they want to or not in order to commute.
Its sad, but its true, and there really isn't a bigger reason behind it. They do it because they know that they can get away with it. Whether it steps on people's toes or not.
And, it really is ridiculous. In addition to the fact that the majority of students do not have bulging bank accounts, many of the college students also have loans they are going to have to pay back or are in the process of having to worry about paying back because once they graduate those that loaned them money are going to expect payments.
With the addition of adding Subway fare, and adding a tax just for going to school, it is pretty easy to say that students are going to have an even harder time paying back their student loans. Which is really disturbing, because some students and recent graduates (and some not-so-recent graduates) are struggling almost impossibly hard to be able to do this already and are finding that in the current economy they cannot.
I've heard of former students feeling they have no choice but to go into prostitution just simply to get the money quick enough to make a difference with their payments, and others who actually have to declare bankruptcy because of it.
With this already being such a problem, you would think that the government and government organizations would try a little harder not to target students so much, because they are already having enough financial difficulties as it is.
@tracezilla@lovelyish - Why would you declare bankruptcy on student loans? Federal student loans are not bankruptable.
@ProudToBeAChristianFruitcake@xanga - Lol, all I know is that I've heard of it. People can't pay back the loans and factoring in whatever else their expenses are, they end up having to bankrupt because they simply can't continue to make their payments and pay bills and buy food and whatnot. I would've bookmarked the news site pages if I'd thought at the time I would ever need them for anything. :p
They do it because they realize that your average high school senior doesn't think about these things when they're picking out a college and that they'll probably simply take out more loans to cover the extra cost.
@ProudToBeAChristianFruitcake@xanga - Nope, but the credit card debt they racked up during those four years is. They also can sling all their expenses onto those cards and apply every cent they make to the student loans, but that takes planning.
@snowandstarstone@xanga - use credit cards, that are what 20-29% interest, and sling money towards a student loan debt that is what 6-10% interest rate?
I think it would make more sense, to put the student loans on hardship derferment. Then get a second job on the weekends to make more money, pay off the credit cards, then cut up the credit cards and use the monthly payment from the cards, to help pay off the student loan debt.
@ProudToBeAChristianFruitcake@xanga - Assuming that the person is attempting to pay off both the student loan and card debt, it's a horrible strategy. Assuming that the person has deemed paying off the kit and kaboodle hopeless and wants to get as much of a debt writeoff out of their bankruptcy possible (won't write off student loans), it's effective. Of course the whole concept has little to no ethics, but that's not the point. The point is, someone could and likely already has used this.
As a Pittsburgh college student, I think it sucks that we have to pay more than we already have to pay (Carnegie Mellon tuition is absolutely RIDICULOUS) but really, why shouldn't I pay a tax? I don't understand why anything is tax exempt to be honest. If you use the services in a city why shouldn't you have to pay for them??
As for the MTA, I think it would be better to raise everyone's fair. They'd probably make more money that way anyways.