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Comment by roc | Hacker News Reader

Sure, but they're only using the bridge to drive to McDonalds. It's McDonalds generating all that traffic -- they should pay the bridge operator too! /sarcasm.

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If we had usage-paid highways (which we couldn't have earlier due to missing technology but now such things start to pop up), I can imagine some remotely-located mega-store could advertise as "come to us and we'll pay your road toll - both directions!".

Usage-paid highways have been standard in some countries for ages - they just use toll bridges at every entrance and exit and deduce your price from entrance and exit position.

Subsidized parking is a similar sort of thing.

It's like asking Walmart to pay for the cost of the welfare that its employees take.

Wait!

Was that sarcasm? If not, and it was a serious idea then keep in mind Walmart is not the "parent" of their employees - it's not responsible for their upkeep.

Hopefully that was just sarcasm and I'm replying for no reason.

They do. Property taxes.

Seeing as ISPs also receive money from the government and Netflix pays taxes, you could make the same pointless observation about Netflix and Verizon.

But you shouldn't. This discussion is about a direct company-to-company attempted shakedown, not inefficient procurement.

I'm not sure you mean to argue for a publicly funded Internet, but that's basically what this implies.

You've already got that as the government already pays subsidies. I'm all for basic infrastructure to be collectively owned; be it co-ops, collectives, not for profits or even the government (local, national etc). This is the way it is for roads, rubbish, sewerage, etc. If you want a premium / luxury service then feel free to pay extra. Contract out support, maintenance, sales for the infrastructure by all means, but the ownership should be a collective of the users.

Property taxes tied to the level of traffic destined for a particular commercial location? This is the first I've heard of something like this, can you tell me more?

Property taxes for a given location are determined by the size and nature of the business.

Property taxes are based on a poor approximation of what a property would be expected to sell for. The relationship between that and the size or nature of the business operating there is highly attenuated, and it's almost entirely decoupled from how much traffic a business generates on any particular road.

They don't pay taxes to toll road operators.

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