成人X站

Sound Transit鈥檚 board is moving toward what is described as a 鈥渓ighter touch鈥� on fare enforcement.

According , if you鈥檙e caught not paying, you鈥檇 get a warning. If you鈥檙e caught again not paying, you鈥檇 get a second warning. If you鈥檙e caught a third time not paying, you鈥檇 get a $50 fine, and so on.

The problem is, the non-payers don鈥檛 have to show ID, so there鈥檚 no way to keep track of who鈥檚 been warned.

This isn鈥檛 a light touch, this is out of touch,聽based on the idea that poor people shouldn鈥檛 pay for anything 鈥� which is ridiculous.

In 2005, we visited Niger, where my daughter was in the Peace Corps. Annual personal income in Niger that year was less than a dollar a day — poorest country in the world. And when we piled into our bush taxi,聽everybody had to pay the fare.

If you had a goat, you also paid a cargo fee to tie it to the roof rack. You might have to save up for a month to afford all this, but you were expected to pay. No money, no ride.

That needs to be the rule for Sound Transit.

Here鈥檚 the sign that should be posted at the stations: You need an Orca card to board this train. Riding without the proper fare is a criminal offense. If you need a subsidized card, one will be provided for you by calling this number. If you do not pay your fare, and do not have ID, you will be escorted off the train at the next stop. Thank you for keeping Sound Transit a safe, financially viable service.

Just like a conductor on Amtrak, fare enforcement officers should roam the cars checking fares and providing a security presence.

If that doesn鈥檛 work, it鈥檚 time to go full New York and put up gates and turnstiles, or go full Paris and arrest people who don鈥檛 pay. That almost happened to us once when we lost our ticket 鈥� they weren鈥檛 fooling around, and that鈥檚 in a for-real socialist country.

Why do fares have to be enforced? Because otherwise you鈥檙e saying it鈥檚 free, and if it鈥檚 free, it鈥檚 not only poor people who will stop paying. Even people who can afford it will stop paying. And why should they?

Pretty soon, the homeless will start living on the trains, and once that happens, the middle class will go back to their gasoline cars, global warming gets worse, Sound Transit becomes a constantly-moving tent city, taxpayers get tired of subsidizing a service they don鈥檛 use, until finally we just park the trains and pave over the tracks.

The bottom line is that we need to stop treating poor people like they鈥檙e four years old.

Everything comes at a cost. The way to help the poor is to give them money so they can pay for things, not make everything free.

Listen to Seattle鈥檚 Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O鈥橞rien weekday mornings from 5 鈥� 9 a.m. on 成人X站 Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the聽podcast here.