Saturday, May 06, 2017

More of My Money Down The Craphole

It's bad enough that I have to pay for public transit--to "save the planet" and to help the poor--but now I'm providing actual cars to the poor:
Residents at three public housing areas now have a mini-fleet of free Zipcars to make their way around Sacramento.

On Friday, Sacramento launched a pilot program that put eight shared electric Kia Souls at public housing sites. Up to 300 residents can apply for on-demand access to the vehicles, with no charge for maintenance, insurance or juicing up the battery.

The program is funded through a $1.3 million grant from the California Air Resources Board using cap-and-trade funds that businesses pay to offset their carbon emissions. 
*sigh*

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article148948619.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article148948619.html#storylink=cpy

5 comments:

Pseudotsuga said...

*eye-blink*
It really appears that in their rush to be seen as good people (help the poor! help the planet!) that the powers-that-be haven't thought this through.
NO charge for maintenance? Then when they break down, then who is responsible for repair? (ah yes, Uncle Sugar again! Those wonderful taxpayers who care so much that they voluntarily give part of their income to those with less.) why would the drivers have any incentives to not beat the heck of out these vehicles? (Oh, that's right -- these are the virtuous, victimized poor.)
No charge for insurance? Then...who is insuring these? Why would the drivers have any incentive to drive safely?
No charge for recharging? That electricity gotta come from somewhere, and it can't be made or transmitted for free. SOMEBODY's electric bill must go up somewhere. Or the cost will be hidden in things like rent increases.
And 300 people are going to be able to "schedule" vehicle use? Yeah...right... I'm sure that would work well in a polite utopia of people who have good social skills, self-discipline and... oh, right, these are the virtuous, victimized poor. They're JUST LIKE US, bleat the liberals-in-charge, who just need some concern and help to overcome Da System that Keeps Them Down (tm)
Perhaps this money would have been better spent on something like, oh, I don't know, public transportation passes.
California-- the land of dreams made life, Disneyland writ large!

Darren said...

Pseudotsuga, clearly you hate poor people :)

Anonymous said...

These are the same people who trash the housing for which they do not pay. It has been happening for decades, as reported by one of of the DC tv stations, years ago. They filmed one of the completely renovated projects and returned about 6 months later, to find the place trashed - cabinets torn out, plumbing fixtures broken, holes in the wall, refuse and trash everywhere. It happened in the areas around Section 8 housing in the suburban area where I used to live, along with increased crime and school disruption. It is an entirely predictable outcome of enabling all kinds of dysfunctional behavior by not letting people experience the consequences; by being removed from said housing or to a bootcamp school, for instance. We have created a group of people who expect to be supported forever, at taxpayer expense, with no requirements for good - or even law-abiding- behavior on their part.

Pseudotsuga said...

Anonymous-- why you hate poor folks, you hatey McHaterson? ;-)

Ellen K said...

Virtue signaling is getting to be a bigger draw in California than Pokemon Go.
My observation is that when someone doesn't have a stake in continuing a program by having to pay even a token fee, they see nothing wrong with abusing the system, because after all, they don't have to pay for it. Case in point, ten years ago a local middle school got a grant to provide every student with an IPad. This is long before the folly that has gone on in my district. I know of this story because I knew the people involved in writing the grant. They wrote it for this low income school as a means to expose their students to opportunity but instead half-literally half-ended up stolen, some ending up in Mexico when they were finally traced down using serial numbers. Others were so loaded with pornography and viruses that they couldn't be allowed on the district system. This was a well meaning effort, but because the parents and students weren't economically held responsible for the safety of the devices. As a result, the program was a failure and ultimately this rideshare program will probably fail as well. You get what you pay for.