Pittsburgh Rys 101

[Kenneth and Tracie Josephson]

EDWARD H. LYBARGER wrote:
> 
> Colleges and universities are among the worst when it comes to power and
> ethics.  What's most egregious is accepting oodles of corporate $$$ for
> research and other pet projects and then bashing the same companies in the
> classrooms.

Not to mention that PBS is guilty of the same thing. (ooops, way off
topic.)

> Too many instructors have never seen the light of day of a
> "real world" job, yet feel they have every right to look down on others.

I have a cousin who was born and raised in Pittsburgh. He is now a
professor at a university in Maryland. He is so far left of center that
he actually mourned the break up of the Soviet Union. Yet he felt
terrible for the Palmer (of Pittsburgh Railways) family because of the
tactics the state and county used between 1959 and 1967. His family knew
the Palmers. I guess when human faces are attached to the "evil"
corporations in the private sector, those who want a government
controlled "utopia" can see things differently. 

> They should have been teaching the ethics courses all along, and practicing
> some of the principles themselves!  Further, MBAs have destroyed more jobs
> in America than even the environmentalists!

At least Mercedes-Benz supposedly requires managerial appointees to work
virtually all aspects of the operation before being parked at a desk
making decisions. Does PAT ever ask its motormen or drivers for input?
> 
> My point about government involvement is that it was supposed to have
> eliminated all the "abuses" of private operators who HAD to make a return
> for their owners, and spent what it took to do that.  Instead we squander
> money advertising, for example, that taking the bus is a lot better than
> riding a pogo stick to work.  And we pay some clown in excess of $80K
> annually for that kind of "originality."

Private corporations have to make a profit or die. The public sector has
a "use it or lose it" mentality when it comes to receiving taxpayers'
money. And when appointed bureaucrats don't have to answer directly to
the stockholders, er...taxpayers, they will abuse power, too. It goes
without saying that elected officials abuse power, too.

The PCC was a durable and reliable machine. So was the pre-RTS GMC
diesel transit coach. And most of the post WW II North American
trackless trolleys. These vehicles had to be reliable for a private
sector industry trying to survive. What do we have now? Frustrated
wannabe aero-space engineers over-engineering fragile, complicationed
LRVs and transit coaches which have a fifteen year service life. 

> But the ultimate point is that we can't call people "evil" simply for
> eliminating streetcars!

No, but we can call them abusive IF the public funding their operation
are ridiculed for opposing their plans or are intimidated into accepting
what the public agency claims IT wants for the public rather than what
the public wants from it. Ken J.