New York City’s latest and greatest idea to reduce the overwhelming crush of midtown traffic is congestion pricing.  As argued in this New York Times editorial, it would hopefully result in “cleaner air, less gridlock and billions of dollars for mass transportation.”  The idea is that people driving into midtown would have to pay an additional $8 for the pleasure.

The basic idea is sound in many respect.  There are a ton of yuppies who have no need to drive into the city, spend $38 a day on parking, but for the fact that they can.  Too important to wait for the train, they insist on their right to guide their Porsche or Beemer at 3 miles per hour through bumper to bumper traffic because the commuters trains aren’t frequent enough for these very important people.  I know. A lot of them are dear friends of mine.

But this is happening at a time when real people are suffering a net decline in income, costs are skyrocketing for all the normal accoutrements of city employment and the fares on everything else are rising in multiples of the cost of living increase.  And then there’s that whole subprime mortgage thing.

The use of financial incentives to manipulate behavior is an American tradition. It’s the foundation of our tax code.  It’s the basis for sin taxes.  It’s government’s way of making us do what they think we should.  If you happen to be on the right side of these machinations, you are likely to support them.  If you’re on the wrong side, you pay the price.

But it’s reaching a point where going to work in Manhattan is no longer economically feasible.  The costs just keep piling on, and they have to come from somewhere.

At the same time, we realize that the fees charged for legal services are beyond the reach of normal people already.  Where is it supposed to go?  The judges are ready to take up arms to get a raise, and the lawyers want to earn a decent living too.  But private lawyers have no one to go to when we want a raise.  Our fees are paid by our clients.

The costs imposed by these various taxes apply to us, our employees and our clients.  When the cost of going to work every day  increases, net income declines.  We need to make it up somewhere, and there’s only one place to go. 

I have no personal beef with the purposes behind Bloomberg’s congestion pricing scheme, and in the long run hope it does the anticipated good.  But when fees go up to pay for each politicians little slice of heaven, bear in mind that it wasn’t my choice.  I appreciate that you work for a living.  So do I.  And I pay the same bills that you do, so I do understand.  So do I eat the increase or do I spread it around?  Either way, it’s unpleasant for someone.

As for my buddies in their Porches and Beemers, they will pay the extra $8 without blinking.  It’s a small price for their personal convenience.