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US cities pay too much for buses

(www.bloomberg.com)
355 points pavel_lishin | 2 comments | 26 Sep 25 13:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.012s | source
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lenerdenator ◴[26 Sep 25 14:22 UTC] No.45386816[source]▶
> "A new paper argues that lack of competition, demand for custom features and “Buy America” rules have driven up costs for transit agencies in the US."

If that's not the most NYC finance-centered headline ever, I don't know what is.

"If we just offload our bus-building industry to somewhere else, we could save $x on taxes each year. Yeah, it eliminates jobs and is another blow against strategically-important heavy industry, but please, think of my balance sheet!"

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sidewndr46 ◴[26 Sep 25 14:27 UTC] No.45386877[source]▶
imagine how much money the government could save by just continuing to collect taxes and not providing any services! we could privatize everything!
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1. mschuster91 ◴[26 Sep 25 14:32 UTC] No.45386946[source]▶
That's ... decently close to what the current political course of action is, a strategy called "starve the beast" [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

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2. sidewndr46 ◴[26 Sep 25 15:12 UTC] No.45387429[source]▶
The very first sentence in that sayes "cutting taxes". I'm explicitly proposing that taxes be maintained or raised while reducing or eliminating government services.