Opinion
LangleyAdvance
| Thursday, September 13, 2012 |
A8
Our View
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For whom the bridge tolls We don’t want to rain on Mary Polak’s parade, as she rolls onto the Port Mann Bridge today, symbolically driving in a 1964 car that was built around about the time that the bridge was being completed the first time. It’s nice that we’ll all have an opportunity to revel in the new bridge’s entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s widest bridge – and we appreciate that freshly minted Transportation Minister Polak will personally confirm the bridge’s width, to ensure that there are no embarrassing gaffs if it were to be discovered after the fact that the bridge was, after all, the centre of another error in judgment… Did we say “another”? Let’s first consider the judgment call that gave birth to the “Gateway” idea of spending a few billions of dollars on a bridge to effect traffic relief that could have been accomplished at a third of the price through a properly planned transit system, perhaps followed (not preceded) by a much more modest bridge concept. Instead, even the band-aid “Rapid Bus” system promised Langley has been shut down for a lack of funding that amounts to about a thousandth the cost of a bridge. The traffic relief offered by the new, world-record-wide Port Mann Bridge will be temporary, as the increased capacity will inevitably – and ironically – spur still more personal-vehicle traffic that will certainly clog the arteries back up in just a few short years. And then there’s the matter of tolls. There will have been a lot of sighs of relief from commuters south of the Fraser River when they heard that the Port Mann tolls would start at only $1.50 per crossing. There’s probably still some bated breaths on the north end of the cheaper-to-build, yet costlier to cross Golden Ears Bridge, however, while they wait to see how it will all impact traffic between and through Langley, Maple Ridge, and Pitt Meadows. And we’ll all wistfully wonder why all British Columbians get to pay for all of the bridges throughout the province… but a select few of us get to pay a lot more. Minister Polak better hang on to her hat as she rides onto that bridge today. She’s in for quite a ride. – B.G.
Your View
Advance Poll…
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Vote at… www.langleyadvance.com Last week’s question… Will you be joining the crowds at the Langley Good Times CruiseIn this weekend? Yes
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Opinion
Economic Man is Fictional Man Painful truth
by their desire to gain advantage, and that this is most keenly demonstrated through economic interactions, is particularly popular in the “free market is always right” strain of thought that runs from Friedrich Hayek through Ayn Rand Matthew Claxton and former US Fed chair Alan Greenspan. mclaxton@langleyadvance.com The problem is, Homo economicus does not exist. Never has. Many experiments, by psychologists and even (gasp!) economists have Why are the BC Liberals likely to lose in the proven that people will repeatedly, and hapnext election? pily, do things that are against their financial If I may advance a slightly unusual theory, self-interest. Sometimes they do these things I’ll say it’s because they believe that economunconsciously, and at other times, they do it ics is a real science. with eyes wide open. We all know that it was the HST that So what happened when the Liberals tried to unleashed all the fury and anger against educate us all about the HST? the party after 10 years of electoral dominSome of us (like me) looked at the evidence, ance. The BC Liberals sprung the HST on an and decided that the HST wasn’t unsuspecting public, immediately that bad. The good may have, after an election in which they They kept indeed, outweighed the bad. mentioned it not at all. And then we voted against it But the Liberals figured they trying to in the referendum anyway. could salvage this situation. After “communicate” Because we wanted to punish all, the HST would be better for with us… the Liberals for their behaviour, people economically, right? The and that was a handy stick with average British Columbian, that which to smack them. creature as mythical as Bigfoot, People have repeatedly shown in experiwould have more money in his/her pocket ments that if, say, someone steals $5 from with the HST than with the PST/GST combo. them, they are willing to lose $10 to punish A majority of British Columbians did not see the offender. People who violate norms of fairit that way. ness, who are seen to be deceitful and lying, Thus the sputtering denials from now exshould be punished, says something deep in premier Gordon Campbell that his government our ape brains. We want justice, and we are could have done a better job of communicatwilling to give up more than we have already ing the benefits of the tax. And they kept trying to “communicate” with us, while their poll lost to get it. In the old Soviet Union, there was this idea numbers dipped so low the barometric presthat a collective lifestyle and goverment-run sure changed. economy would create something called the I think the problem was that Campbell and New Soviet Man. He would not be motivated other senior Liberals – a collection of technoby gain, but only by idealism, and a desire to cratic economics wonks – were trying to talk help his fellow human beings. not to the “average British Columbian.” They I don’t need to tell you how badly the grindwere trying to talk to Homo economicus. ing, paranoid, badly planned, and corrupt This is a fictional creature created by econoSoviet system failed to create anything like a mists to try and explain human behaviour. New Man. Why do people do things, say economists. Our current leaders are trying to force Homo They want stuff. Mostly money, apparently, as that can buy all sorts of stuff, including status. economicus into existence, and with just as much success. The idea that people are primarily motivated
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