I was worried that this would be like those cookies pop-ups, but the functionality is still present here in the land of the free…

I don’t think we disagree about anything that isn’t a matter of opinion.

(But if making drivers pay for the streets is fair, wouldn’t making the people who use mass transit pay for it also be fair? The MTA spends three or four times as much as it collects in fares.)

I’m not a big fan of those other tolls either, especially since there isn’t any way to get across the Hudson River in a car without paying a toll unless you drive 160 miles each way to Albany. (In practice you would only need to drive 80 miles each way to pay a very low toll.) I’m currently considering some jobs in New Jersey and having to pay about $50 every time I visit my relative in NYC is definitely something I need to account for. It all makes me wish I was still living in New Hampshire.

Your article makes congestion pricing in London seem like a failure, and I would call getting those same results in New York a failure.

I think the advertising is moderated and that’s one reason why these things are being called fuel filters. It isn’t reasonable to expect Facebook moderators to distinguish a filter from a silencer that looks like a filter. I doubt I could do it myself, especially if it wasn’t specifically what I was looking for.

People can get used to anything. I think it’s also likely that the Democratic party will not put forth any serious candidates who oppose congestion pricing, most people aren’t going to be single-issue voters about it, and even if someone who opposes it gets elected then he’ll still have a hard time getting rid of it for all the reasons why it’s always hard to lower taxes. Trump might manage to kill it, but if he doesn’t then I wouldn’t bet on it ending even if it does cost Hochul the election.

(But I wouldn’t want to bet $500 million on it not ending either.)

No (and neither are sandwiches). Even being in NYC at all isn’t required to live.

Consider a tax on sandwiches (which New York actually has). I have a choice of whether to pay it or not; I could buy a different food. The amount I pay is directly tied to what I use; it’s a sales tax. Would you say that it’s wrong to call this a sandwich tax and that it should be called a sandwich user fee?

You don’t mention this, but I think that the main difference between a toll and a sales tax is that the toll is for the use of something provided by the government whereas the sales tax is a fee that the government imposes on transactions between two other parties. However, tolls are generally for the use of something specific (for example, the Midtown Tunnel ). The New York City income tax isn’t a toll despite the fact that it could be described as the fee that the government charges for living in NYC.

Ultimately the line between the two terms is a matter of opinion, but in my opinion driving in Manhattan south of 60th Street is too general for the fee charged for it to be called a toll. It’s more like living in New York City than it is like driving through the Midtown Tunnel.

I lean towards libertarianism and I oppose congestion pricing because I think all the claimed benefits are just marketing and it’s simply a new tax. If it does improve conditions in Manhattan significantly, I’ll admit I was wrong.

I wonder how this will affect elections. I figure Governor Hochul “indefinitely” paused the program last summer to avoid hurting Democrats in the 2024 election. The next mayoral election in NYC is in November of this year and the next election of the governor is in November 2026. Right now both the mayor and the governor are not popular and congestion pricing has a lot of opponents. Maybe people will get used to it before the elections, which is what Hochul is betting on, but there will almost certainly be a new mayor (for reasons unrelated to congestion pricing) and Hochul’s chances of being reelected aren’t great either.

With all that and opposition from Trump, I think there’s a good chance that congestion pricing won’t last very long. (I can’t say I would be sad.) The congestion pricing hardware cost over $500 million to build, and the expected income from the toll would take over a year to cover that. The MTA’s budget will be in big trouble if congestion pricing ends up not even paying for itself.

pedestrian-only zones, such as in New York City’s Times Square

Times Square isn’t pedestrian-only. Parts of Broadway have been turned into pedestrian-only areas but 7th Avenue and all the cross streets are open to cars and very busy. There are bollards and concrete barriers between the cars and the pedestrians.

Yes, I would support that. I think that simply making H1B visas easier to get will reduce the extent of the problem (since getting a new H1B at a new job would be easier too) but I would also support additional measures specifically to address it.

I’m not arguing against the claim that H1B holders take jobs that Americans might have otherwise had. I have moral objections to it, but it isn’t objectively false the way that Bernie’s claim is.

If Sanders gets his way and denies H1B visas to people who would have gotten them under Musk’s proposal, then Sanders is taking away the option of coming to the USA that those people would have had. That’s (1) an option no one is forcing them to take, (2) an option that they really want, and (3) an option that they can change their mind about at any time. An indentured servant is someone who doesn’t have the option of leaving. You can’t make someone indentured by giving them more options.

I know multiple people here on H1B visas too. They do have difficulties that Americans do not, but they would still much rather be in the USA than go back to their home countries. How would taking away that option to be in the USA (which they really want) help these people?

Six digits is “only” average in San Francisco, and well above average almost everywhere else. I’d say that being the average resident of an extremely expensive place to live in the USA is nowhere near “low-wage indentured servant”.

Also, H1B holders can change jobs, as long as the new job gets them a new H1B. That makes it harder for them to change jobs than it is for Americans, but many tech companies are willing to get that visa for someone talented.

Edit: They also always have the option of leaving the USA and going back to their home country. They don’t gain anything from Sanders’ proposal - they just lose the option of coming to the USA in the first place, which is an option they really want to have. What Musk is proposing is clearly better for them, so Sanders shouldn’t wrap his opposition in false claims of looking out for the poor foreigners who might get those awful American jobs unless he stops them.

There’s nowhere you can work where that’s not plenty of money. I’m saying that as someone who lives in Manhattan.

That’s the minimum, but they usually get about twice as much.

What the hell is he talking about? The average H1B employee has a six-digit salary.

These articles sound like their primary goal is to anger Trump.

Malofeyev seemed to speak on Putin’s behalf when he denounced Donald Trump’s Ukraine-Russia peace offer—before negotiations had even started. “For the talks to be constructive,” he said, “we need to talk not about the future of Ukraine but the future of Europe and the world.”

“Trump and his administration should understand that the Russian mainstream has shifted to the right,” Verkhovsky added. For Russia’s growing ultranationalist faction, he said, Trump’s “plan to let Kyiv stay independent would not be acceptable.”

I don’t think Trump reacts well to being disrespected, whereas a more normal politician wouldn’t make major decisions based on personal feelings. I suppose we’ll see what the Russians say to Trump’s face, but if this is going to be their attitude then his response might be dramatic (especially since Zelenskyy is sure to flatter him).