Caltrain Salaries Keep Going Up (buying, prices, legal)

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

Actually, it has nothing to do with capitalism at all. CalTrain wouldn't even exist if we were purely capitalistic. It has everything to to with the fact they're a government monopoly.

Train service between San Francisco and San Jose has existed since 1863 when Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) built the line down the peninsula. Capitalism at work! When passenger service became unprofitable, they unloaded it off to government which has managed to run the service into the ground.

Southern Pacific managed to make a profit out of this line and when that was no longer possible, government, which likes to spend other peoples money (taxpayers), set up another bureaucracy to reward themselves with high pay and benefits with little thought of the public.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by 415 Native

LOL at the knee jerk right wing reaction. Who said anything about communism? I'm just telling you the general population always gets hit the hardest in capitalism. You act like the U.S. has a long history. LOL @ this is how we have survived this long? This long? Are you kidding me?

P.S. Caltrain is paid by governments, Those commies. Maybe if you didn't live in Arkansas you'd know that.

It has nothing to do with Capitalism. Under Capitalism, entrepreneurs in the free market invest capital in the hopes of earning a profit.

Caltrain doesn't fit that description. No one with a profit motive invented the idea of Caltrain, and Caltrain does not operate with a profit motive - so there is no motivation to be efficient. No one at Caltrain ever lost his or her job for poor performance.

Originally Posted by 415 Native

... I'm just telling you the general population always gets hit the hardest in capitalism...

Nope. Under Capitalism, price signals incent business owners to provide the goods and services that the general population wants the most.

The more you provide goods & services people actually, you know, want to buy, the more money you make. Profitable corporations are those who meet the needs of customers.

Contrast that with entities that have no profit motive - say, Caltrain. How is Caltrain working out for you?

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

Nope. Under Capitalism, price signals incent business owners to provide the goods and services that the general population wants the most.

The more you provide goods & services people actually, you know, want to buy, the more money you make.

So you are telling us that we must suck the ***** of the uber-rich to succeed? Otherwise known as the "providers"? Seems these sorts of Gordon Ghekko a-holes don't do "trickle-down"; their money disappears far, far away.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

So you are telling us that we must suck the ***** of the uber-rich to succeed? Otherwise known as the "providers"? Seems these sorts of Gordon Ghekko a-holes don't do "trickle-down"; their money disappears far, far away.

Let me know when you have a post that actually, you know, makes sense.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

Let me know when you have a post that actually, you know, makes sense.

Let us know when you have a moment to post in between Glen Beck repeats.

[415 Native]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

Actually, it has nothing to do with capitalism at all. CalTrain wouldn't even exist if we were purely capitalistic. It has everything to to with the fact they're a government monopoly. A CalTrain rider quoted at the end of the article put it well:

"I don't think Caltrain is operating as a business; they're operating like a government monopoly," said Daniel Connolly, who commutes on Caltrain from San Francisco to Palo Alto. "And given that mind-set, I don't think it's too surprising that they're not doing well."

Monopoly's and capitalism go hand in hand. What's the point of a monopoly if not for the largest profit possible?

[415 Native]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

It has nothing to do with Capitalism. Under Capitalism, entrepreneurs in the free market invest capital in the hopes of earning a profit.

Caltrain doesn't fit that description. No one with a profit motive invented the idea of Caltrain, and Caltrain does not operate with a profit motive - so there is no motivation to be efficient. No one at Caltrain ever lost his or her job for poor performance.



Nope. Under Capitalism, price signals incent business owners to provide the goods and services that the general population wants the most.

The more you provide goods & services people actually, you know, want to buy, the more money you make. Profitable corporations are those who meet the needs of customers.

Contrast that with entities that have no profit motive - say, Caltrain. How is Caltrain working out for you?

Oh so you think the government is not capitalistic. lol. ok. I'm sure Amtrak took out a contract for Caltrain out of the goodness of their government hearts.

[aztruth]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

So you are telling us that we must suck the ***** of the uber-rich to succeed? Otherwise known as the "providers"? Seems these sorts of Gordon Ghekko a-holes don't do "trickle-down"; their money disappears far, far away.

Always contempt for the rich, not me. Is there someone holding you back from being sucessful?

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by 415 Native

Monopoly's and capitalism go hand in hand. What's the point of a monopoly if not for the largest profit possible?

No, monopolies and Capitalism do not go hand-in-hand. In Capitalism, when you see a company making a lot of money, it provides a great opportunity for someone else to come in & compete.

Natural monopolies only exist in the rare instances of long-run decreasing average costs.

It would be more accurate to say that extreme Socialism & monopolies go hand-in-hand: you have state-owned industries that are single-sellers. That is a monopoly.

In our society, the monopolies that do exist are for the most part state-sanctioned or state-authorized monopolies. You can tell these companies from a mile a way -- they don't compete; they lobby governments. Their leaders do not come up from engineering or sales or manufacturing; they come from Legal and Government Affairs. They do not have a core competency in product or customer service or marketing -- they have a core competency in lobbying governments for favorable regulations and laws.
Even their vocabulary is different: you or I might talk of prices; they talk of tariffs.

[DarkWolf]

The Average Conductor , Engineer / LRT and BUS operator salary should be 40-65k with some up to 80k after a number of years. Thats the Average in North America , you start out at the way bottom and work your way up slowly.