I made a note to myself when it was fresh news, to mention this as an example – but here we go since I remembered it again:
Travis Central Health had a nice program: if you need a ride to the hospital, we’ll give you one. It was initially given $19,000 but because of increased demand they put in another $9,000. By the time this made the radio news, it had given rides to 140 residents.
No, I didn’t drop a zero there. 140 people got rides, for $28,000. For the math-impaired, that is $200 per ride. You could literally hire a taxi for every drive and do this cheaper. But not if you want to layer a government bureaucracy on top of it.
And no, this is not ambulance transportation. This is *literally* hiring a cab, or giving people a voucher to get on the city bus which costs single-digits of dollars per ride. The additional cost to get up to $200/ride is the bureaucracy.
Remember that, the next time someone says they want to put government in charge of another aspect of life.
Vote for David 