Privatizing Public Services...in this case, Transit.

[Kenosha]

If you have an opinion on privatizing public transit, or any public service for that matter, this article is a little lesson in history.  Chicago history, no doubt, but there is still a lesson in here somewhere.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/chicago-privatization-public-transportation-cta-el/Content?oid=1955350&showFullText=true


edit: off topic, but historian Vernon Louis Parrington is quoted in the article.  Parrington is notable in Oklahoma.  Parrington Oval at the University of Oklahoma is named for him. He was an English professor and football coach at OU in the early 1900's.

[Hoss]

If you have an opinion on privatizing public transit, or any public service for that matter, this article is a little lesson in history.  Chicago history, no doubt, but there is still a lesson in here somewhere.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/chicago-privatization-public-transportation-cta-el/Content?oid=1955350&showFullText=true


edit: off topic, but historian Vernon Louis Parrington is quoted in the article.  Parrington is notable in Oklahoma.  Parrington Oval at the University of Oklahoma is named for him. He was an English professor and football coach at OU in the early 1900's.

Fascinating article.  Chock full o' common sense.

[waterboy]

I pretty much agree with the first response at the end of the article. "Ain't civilization grand?"

[Kenosha]

The entire comment is worth repeating:

So the moral of the story is: government is too corrupt and incompetent to be trusted with anything, while corporations are too greedy and unethical to be trusted with anything. Non-union workers are helpless and unable to fight for living wages and safe conditions, while union workers are so greedy and lazy they drive their own employers out of business. Voters hate corruption; except, of course, when it works in their favor.

Ain't civilization grand?

[Gaspar]

The entire comment is worth repeating:

It seems that the individual entrepreneur is the only entity worth the public trust.  We've come full circle.  I love this country. 

[TeeDub]

Neither the government nor the private individual is worthy of public trust.   



At least with the private individual I am not having to pay for a service regardless of whether I use it.

[custosnox]

Neither the government nor the private individual is worthy of public trust.   



At least with the private individual I am not having to pay for a service regardless of whether I use it.

ever really looked at your dr.'s bill?

[rwarn17588]

At least with the private individual I am not having to pay for a service regardless of whether I use it.

Apparently you don't buy insurance.

[Conan71]

Apparently you don't buy insurance.

What private individual do you know who writes insurance?  I must get a quote because I bet their overhead is a whole lot less than corporate behemoths like Farmers, Allstate, State Farm, etc.

[rwarn17588]

What private individual do you know who writes insurance?  I must get a quote because I bet their overhead is a whole lot less than corporate behemoths like Farmers, Allstate, State Farm, etc.

Sorry, brain fart ... I meant extended warranties for equipment. And, yes, I've bought them from private, individually-owned businesses.

[TeeDub]

Sorry, brain fart ... I meant extended warranties for equipment. And, yes, I've bought them from private, individually-owned businesses.

People really buy extended warranties? 

I bet you also pay for "inside wiring" protection from the utility companies and the extra "credit protection" from your credit card (even though your federally mandated liability limit is $50.)

[nathanm]

People really buy extended warranties? 

Here I go again contributing to thread drift...

Yeah, sometimes they're a good deal. Ten years ago, Best Buy's extended warranty for cell phones was utterly excellent, well worth $20 on a $200 purchase. More recently, buying an Xbox 360 without an extended warranty wasn't such a wise idea if you didn't want to be without your system for weeks at a time while Microsoft replaced it.

Extended warranties are almost always a terrible deal, but there are rare occasions they are to the customer's advantage. Mainly in products that are known to be failure-prone yet, for whatever reason still have inexpensive extended warranty coverage.

Also, one should always keep in mind that their credit card may provide some sort of extended warranty coverage. For example, most Amex cards add a year to the manufacturer's warranty, as do a lot of Visa and MasterCard gold/platinum/unobtainium cards.

[Conan71]

Here I go again contributing to thread drift...

Yeah, sometimes they're a good deal. Ten years ago, Best Buy's extended warranty for cell phones was utterly excellent, well worth $20 on a $200 purchase. More recently, buying an Xbox 360 without an extended warranty wasn't such a wise idea if you didn't want to be without your system for weeks at a time while Microsoft replaced it.

Extended warranties are almost always a terrible deal, but there are rare occasions they are to the customer's advantage. Mainly in products that are known to be failure-prone yet, for whatever reason still have inexpensive extended warranty coverage.

Also, one should always keep in mind that their credit card may provide some sort of extended warranty coverage. For example, most Amex cards add a year to the manufacturer's warranty, as do a lot of Visa and MasterCard gold/platinum/unobtainium cards.

Drifting further... I've never known of anyone to actually try and file a claim on any extended credit card benefits, I'm curious how difficult the gymnastics are to utilize those.

One thing I was unaware of until the other night regarding coverage I usually decline is the rental company-provided insurance on rental cars.  My GF is an independent agent and told me that if you decline the coverage offered at the rental counter you are not only responsible for the deductible assuming you were at fault in a collision, but you have to reimburse the rental car company how many ever days the car is in the shop for repairs as a "loss of use", unless your policy has this specifically noted and very few do, apparently. 

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/116640/article.html

"Think twice about insurance. When renting a car, you'll be offered a collision damage waiver (CDW) and a loss damage waiver (LDW). The first covers you in the event of a collision, while the second covers any loss to the rental company. Both kinds of coverage are a good idea, but not if they duplicate coverage already included in your own insurance policy. Most insurance policies offer liability coverage to protect you if you injure someone in an accident; some also cover rental-car damage via comprehensive and collision coverage. Check your policy or call your insurance agent to verify coverage before signing up for a vehicle. If you're renting the car with a credit card, your card provider may pay for vehicle damages associated with an accident. Check with your card company ahead of time to make sure.

There's one caveat. The collision damage waiver covers "loss of use," the charge levied by the rental car company to cover its lost income when the vehicle is out of service. In most states, auto insurance policies don't cover this loss, so if you have an accident, you may wind up having to pay this charge out of your own pocket. The states in which loss of use is covered in car insurance policies are: Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Texas. Unless you live in one of these states, the waiver may be a good idea."

Oh, and since we are this far off course: Marshall's Beer.

[nathanm]

One thing I was unaware of until the other night regarding coverage I usually decline is the rental company-provided insurance on rental cars.  My GF is an independent agent and told me that if you decline the coverage offered at the rental counter you are not only responsible for the deductible assuming you were at fault in a collision, but you have to reimburse the rental car company how many ever days the car is in the shop for repairs as a "loss of use", unless your policy has this specifically noted and very few do, apparently. 

Amex is excellent with the warranty extension and the rental car coverage. Other companies are usually pretty decent, too, but play less hardball in the case of the rental car companies.

The rental car companies like to try to scare you into getting LDW because it's a huge profit center for them. Given that they give it away for free to a lot of companies (even midsize ones!) as part of their corporate rate and that they do that even while charging them bare bones prices, I can't imagine it costs them nearly as much as they charge. In any event, all the cards I have that include rental insurance cover loss of use fees anyway, as long as the car company can substantiate their claim that they are entitled to the fees. The scam here is that they try to get away with charging a loss of use fee even when there was no demand for the car. The credit card companies make the rental company provide a fleet usage log showing that the car was needed. They do this because the vast majority of the time, the car isn't actually needed.

The thing you have to watch out for is what types of vehicle are covered and the limit on the length of the rental. Some cards don't cover pickup trucks, and a lot don't cover rentals longer than 14 or 30 days.

On the liability side, you have to remember that they're almost all secondary to your regular auto insurance, if you have any. Amex has a program where they will charge you $20ish whenever you rent a car and in exchange, they pay out before your personal auto insurance does. It also expands the list of covered vehicles to include most luxury cars (many are excluded normally) and pickup trucks. It's handy if you can either expense the extra fee or you only rent for at least a week. Otherwise you're paying half as much for insurance as you are the car on a one day rental.

All that said the benefits booklet you got with your card is the best source of information, obviously.

[Jammie]

You're definitely right about talking to your insurance company and to your credit card company before you take it for granted that you're covered. Some credit card companies are better then others and supposedly the one we have is pretty good. We've never had to use it for damage to a rental so it's hard to tell if it's true.

Something else we learned recently is that our insurance company will only pay the amount equal to the value of our most expensive vehicle. Since rental cars are new and only have a few miles on them and our vehicles are older, we could be out of a lot of money.

I've read some horror stories where people thought they were covered and ended up having an accident, coming home from vacation, and ended up owing a small fortune. That could ruin a vacation!