> Perhaps from the point of view of a North-American tourist mass transit in
> Germany might look nice. For a person who has to use it every day to get to
> work in time its not like this. Trains are crowded, dirty and unreliable. So
> I can understand everyone who does not want to it.
My friend, I rode buses, street trams, U-Bahns and S-Bahns galore, and I did not see a single interior which wasn't spic and span. Things ran pretty much on time (though the train delays could be a little annoying). May I ask where exactly you live in Germany and which mass transit services you're referring to?
> Thats what the Greens are saying, but in the end it will just another tax
> increase common people have to bear. At the end of the day we will hear taht
> any reductions wont be possible because of the 'current budget' situation.
> Since nobody likes to pay taxes, its sounds much better if you are saying
> one has to pay taxes to protect the atmoshere instead of saying its cannons
> instead of butter.
Taxing the rich is not enough, not unless you plan to move the population of Northern Europe (which is pretty much a giant floodplain) into house-boats in the year 2050, once the Antarctic glaciers melt. Social justice can't exist without ecological sustainability, and vice versa; what we do to Nature is also what we do to each other. The Greens got only 6.7% of the vote, so I don't expect miracles from them; but I do expect them to help push -- in conjunction with local Left movements -- the SPD and Europe towards a socially just future.
-- Dennis