Half-full?

This morning's LA Times' Travel section includes the umpteenth piece on how "interesting" it is to see Cuba.  We are often implored to visit places on Earth that have not yet been "spoiled".  This usually means places where people are still condemned to living in conditions that readers (and potential visitors) would not tolerate in their own lives.  Sad to say that many who live a pretty good life in market economies have no idea why they are rich and others are poor.

Governor Cuomo thinks that the way to handle fuel shortages is to make the available supply available for free -- with predictable results.  This is just one example.  There are many people like Cuomo (many in high office) to whom pricing is either exotic or sinister or both.

Transportation officials in Los Angeles are finally taking belated baby steps towards road pricing.  Access to an Express Lane is now available for purchase on Los Angeles' busy I110, which goes through the downtown.  Small progress is indicated by gruding acceptance by the LA Times' Steve Lopez ("Doing the math on 'Lexus lanes' ... Congestion pricing pencils out for those who want to travel faster.  And it takes some of the burden of funding transit off the poor.")

It is still "Lexus lanes".  Free should be the default.  We call the damn things "freeways."  The fact that "the poor" have been hammered by the rail transit fetish is still beyond Lopez.

Is the glass half-full?