WILL POWER REPORT: PRIVATE FREEWAYS

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Nothing but the Truth!
By Will Power
December 14, 2010 (San Diego)--Necons, who have made the 21st Century the Age of Unbridled Greed, have a new plan. Not happy with a monopoly on electricity, gasoline, and natural gas, the new Conservatives want to privatize the LA Freeway system, to keep those damned poor people on the surface streets, while they cruise in Lexus Lanes.

No matter that public taxes paid for the freeways, the rise of electronic detections systems and GPS will make it a simple matter to license cars and charge owners a hundred a month or so for the privilege of riding on formerly public roads.

This has already happened on many southland freeways, where pay-to-ride lanes have sprung up on the most crowded freeways. On the 91 Freeway between Gardenia and San Bernardino, you can pay a few bucks to travel on a less-crowded stretch of road.

Since virtually all new cars have a GPS chip, it will be a simple matter to install detectors which will discriminate between who has paid for the rights to drive and scofflaws, who have not.

Like the current sale of California state office buildings engineered by the Governator, the giveaway of the California freeways will be sold to the gullible public as a cost-saving program to help California balance its budget. California is now going to rent back buildings it formerly owned! Where's the public outrage?

This trillion-dollar giveaway is just a few years away, so start saving your quarters in case you actually need to go somewhere.

You can bet it won't be cheap!

 

Will Power is a retired history teacher and creative writing instructor. The opinions in this column reflect the views of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine.
 


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