On the looming subway fare increases

The smirk on my face becomes particularly obnoxious when I hear average New Yorkers moaning at the prospect of the subway fare being increased next year by 25 cents.  Try having the price of something you more or less need (and like) on a daily basis going up by $3 in the course of a few years, as has happened to smokers.  

I am also fond of the statement from Mayor Bloomberg’s office concerning a potential fare increase:  ”City taxpayers aren’t in a position to increase our subsidy over the billion-dollars-plus we already provide each year.”  They aren’t?  Why not?  Your office has insisted that 20 percent of the city’s taxpayers are in a position to absorb a tax increase many times beyond that of a mere quarter.