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I used to think the same thing about public transport -- make it completely free! However, after a couple of local experiments in making it completely free, I've changed my mind. It should cost _something small_ in order to 1) prevent abuse but also 2) enforce a psychological valuation of the service.

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This is basically the paradoxical case - we should raise the price of these various public services but then enable various and sundry loopholes that let people access them for free.

Then they think they’re pulling a fast one and would utilize it.

How does one abuse public transportation? The bus is gonna go from point A to B no matter what. Does it matter if i want to go back and forth all day long?

Surely there won't be enough people wasting their time like me to fill up the bus and make it unusable for others.

"Back and forth all day long while doing drugs" is literally one of the failure cases.

"Back and forth begging/busking" is another.

That's a misuse of service - it's better to solve that with law enforcement than pricing.

What a weird argument. First of all, it already happens today. People begging or doing drug just get in the subway and do that.

Second, people can also do drug and beg in public parks. Should we add a fee to get into a public park?

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