139 lines
7.3 KiB
HTML
139 lines
7.3 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<title>TitleOfArticle LG #32</title>
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<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Martin Vermeer">
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<BODY TEXT="#663300" BGCOLOR="#FFCC99" LINK="#0000EF" VLINK="#51188E" ALINK="#FF0000">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<H1>
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<FONT COLOR="#663300">It takes its toll</FONT></H1></CENTER>
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<CENTER><FONT COLOR="#663300">by</FONT></CENTER>
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<CENTER>
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<H2>
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<FONT COLOR="#663300">Martin Vermeer</FONT></H2></CENTER>
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<CENTER><FONT FACE="Courier New,Courier"><FONT COLOR="#663300"><A HREF="mailto:mv@liisa.pp.fi">mv@liisa.pp.fi</A></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
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<FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300"><B>The origin of the current mess </B>can be traced
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back to a short spell of ultra-liberalism, when the government caved in
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to the pressure to cut taxes and eliminate the national debt by selling
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off the road network. Politicaly, it has been a success; taxes are consistently
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lower than they have been for long, and the man in the street seems to
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be satisfied.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">Of course in the beginning, the situation was
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quite messy; highway segments were auctioned off, and the result was toll
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booths everywhere, so you had to stop many times and have a lot of petty
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cash handy if you wanted to get anywhere.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">But then, gradually, a market leader appeared.
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Federal Transport Corp. bought strategically placed road segments, connected
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them into a countrywide network, made it impossible for anyone else to
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do the same, and slowly took over the rest.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">By the motorists, it was felt to be a blessing.
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Sure, prices went up; but you could get by with getting a yearly license
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and putting the barcode sticker on the roof of your car; you didn't even
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have to brake anymore when passing the toll station. And the more roads
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FT acquired, the better the offer they could make their customers; such
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are the ways of "network externalities".</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">Obviously as many of us now realise, the net effect
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was no tax drop at all. The yearly fee to FT is just another tax, if you
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want to use your car to go anywhere at all; and what's worse, it is paid
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to an authority we didn't elect ourselves. There has been a groundswell
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of resistance, such as the freetown (or "open roads") movement, and I sympathise
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fully with this.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">I live in a freetown now; a small one, at the
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foot of the mountains. Others are on the coast, or around airports. Few
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are inland. We have our own road network that we own ourselves collectively,
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just like in the old days. If you want to go to another freetown, you have
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the options of air, rail and water transport, which are not (yet) under
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FT's control. If you want to visit people outside freetown land, you have
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to pay the toll, of course :-( This -- referred to as "gating
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out" -- is minimized by careful planning.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">You may ask, why did I choose to live in a place,
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and under a regime, that limits my freedom of movement so much? Well first
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of all, it is my own choice. I don't want to owe my "freedom" to an authority
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that does not represent me. And then, there are compensations. The people.
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Freetowners are active, involved citizens; everything is debated, and decisions
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are taken by informed people. Compare that to the way outside. It's a different
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culture really, and I like it. They are my kind of people.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">And, except in the matter of transport, life in
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a freetown is just as good or better than outside. There is a lot of employment
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in hi-tech; as I said, we are a sophisticated lot. And there are no advertisements
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of FT, like there are everywhere outside, enquiring politely but insistently
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where you would feel like going today... that really gets my blood pressure
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up.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">These are interesting times we live in; recently
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the freetown movement has gained a lot of interest and newcomers are flowing
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in. Resentment at the Federal Transport monopoly is tangible, now that
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fees are going up and road maintenance is being neglected. Earlier, just
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after the sell-off, roads were maintained well; you had the option of choosing
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alternative routes, and the toll revenue was channeled to maintenance and
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improvement. Now, many road segments seem to be in free fall down towards
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their natural state. You still have alternative routes to choose from;
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but they are all under FT's control and in uniformly poor shape.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">And then there is this crazy project called the
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RoadPlane. It is a gigantic vehicle, carrying hundreds of people at 200
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mph along the highways, rolling along smoothly on smart-strutted wheels,
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navigated by satellite, electronic map and road radar. I have heard of
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people riding one of those things; quite an impressive experience, it appears.
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FT's slogan is "A Better Plane Than The Plane", but some bad accidents
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have happened already. It is a very complex system; OK as long as everything
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works, but winter weather, the poor state of the roads, and errors in the
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maps -- or an animal straying on to the road -- are hard to foresee and
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take into account. These problems have generally been glossed over in the
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media; FT represents a major advertising budget for them.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#663300">RoadPlane is FT hybris at its best. It is a white
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elephant and that fills me with glee. This could be the undoing of FT,
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who knows. But it will only happen if people take the trouble to inform
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themselves, understand how they are being ripped off, and become active!</FONT><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P><I><FONT COLOR="#663300">Similarity to real events and circumstances
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is, again, purely and wholly intentional.</FONT></I>
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<BR><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<BR><FONT COLOR="#663300"></FONT>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Martin Vermeer <BR>
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Published in Issue 32 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, September 1998</H5></center>
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