The Value of Fifty Cents

By: Mr. Wilson on October 11, 2011
Fifty cents isn't much money, so it's easy to scoff at the City Council's $0.50 increase on monthly passes for low-income StarTran riders. (Handi-van riders will pay an extra $1.00 per month.) On the other hand, fifty cents represents an extra 7%. If you're counting your nickels and dimes each month, that matters. I'm of two minds on this matter. On the one hand, it's fair to ask those who use a service such as StarTran to pay for a portion of their subsidized transportation. Yet it's hard to not feel bad for those for whom $0.50 makes a big difference. I'm certainly in no position to judge how the affected individuals should feel about this. I left $0.63 in a leave-a-penny cup the other day because I didn't have pockets in which to carry the change and carrying the change to my car (along with the other items in my hands) would have been too big of an inconvenience. I have no doubt many of you have done similar things. So although it is tempting to reject the notion of four bits making a difference, I have to acknowledge that for some people, they do. Ultimately I keep coming back to the conclusion that the City Council made the right decision to raise the rate to $8.00 per month. It feels ... doable. Considering my warped sense of the value of fifty cents, however, I continue to be nagged by a voice telling me it's just not that simple.

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