
Massachusetts Toll Collectors Make An Average of $70,000/yr - breck
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/18/pike_wants_to_eliminate_100_toll_taker_jobs/
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breck
Know what amazes me? That you can't buy a Fastlane/EZPass at one of the toll
booths. You have to order online and wait for it to arrive in the mail.

If they had one lane setup where you could pick up a transponder and then
activate it via the phone or Internet when you got home, I bet in a month
nearly everyone in the state would have one.

~~~
gojomo
Agreed! But let's go further: there should be only one lane where you can pay
cash.

Ultimately, even the transponders and phone-signup are superfluous. At least
in the SF Bay area, there are license plate cameras which handle any case
where the transponder fails or cars blow through without paying -- it's then
added to your bill or mailed as a ticket.

So most lanes just need to be: "I agree to be billed according to my car
registration."

With the one lane for people who want to pay cash.

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sethg
IIRC the Massachusetts Turnpike is, mile-for-mile, the most expensive road in
the state.

The Turnpike Authority was chartered as an independent agency that could float
bonds for road construction, and once the bonds were paid off, ownership of
the Turnpike would pass to the state government. So the Authority keeps itself
perpetually in debt.

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rsheridan6
For comparisons sake, the Harris County Toll Road Authority (Houston, TX) paid
new toll collectors $8/hour in 2002, when I briefly worked there. My
supervisor's supervisor made about $11 or $12.

~~~
rudyfink
One of the new toll roads here in Houston is EZ-Pass (electronic) only.

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Goronmon
_urnpike Executive Director Alan LeBovidge says the move is part of an effort
to modernize its toll collecting system by eventually making it fully
automated._

Thank god. Having 2 lanes out of 8 be automated means that everyone just has
to wait in traffic until those lanes open up right at the tolls, thus killing
any time savings.

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altano
Is there something wrong with toll collectors making an average of $70,000?

~~~
tjic
Aside from the "robots could do it cheaper", it is a misallocation of
resources, and that makes all of us poorer.

The job is worth minimum wage ($12,000 / yr or so) at best. In a free market,
you could find folks who would work this job at that price.

Some of these folks have so few skills that they would still work this job.

Other of these folks have higher skills, and isntead of using them in some
productive role (manager at a pharmacy, etc.), they're wasting their skills
sitting on a stool making change.

If you think that it's a good thing for unskilled labor to be paid - because
of union monopolization of labor - far far above it's productive level, then
why not make the minimum wage $70k/yr for everyone?

Or better yet, $120k/yr ?

~~~
jimbokun
"far far above it's productive level, then why not make the minimum wage
$70k/yr for everyone?"

I'm intrigued with the idea of the government just delivering a bucket of
money to every household once a year.

An advantage is that you place some sort of floor under everyone's income,
that would mitigate against basic poverty issues like homelessness, no money
for food or health care, etc. Another advantage is that everyone still has the
same incentives to work, because they can get ahead without worrying about
losing their assistance from being too successful. And (bringing back to HN)
having certain necessities taken care of could enable risk taking and
entrepeneurship. Basically, the government paying for you ramen noodles,
instead of pg :).

I know there are lots of potential problems with this idea, but I've seen it
proposed before, and think it makes a good starting point for a discussion of
thinking of things like poverty, minimum wage, health care, etc. in a
different way.

~~~
DabAsteroid
_I'm intrigued with the idea of the government just delivering a bucket of
money to every household once a year.

An advantage is that you place some sort of floor under everyone's income,
that would mitigate against basic poverty issues like homelessness, no money
for food or health care, etc. Another advantage is that everyone still has the
same incentives to work_

Hmmm. That sounds like what I just wrote. Here is the link again:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income>

 _I know there are lots of potential problems with this idea_

Actually, there are not any problems with it. A capitalist society cannot
function on a healthy level without universal no-strings-attached trickle-
capital. However, I am interested in finding out what you find wrong with the
idea.

~~~
jimbokun
I was assuming others would immediately find problems with the idea that I
hadn't thought of. I really don't know what the downsides are.

Thanks for the link! Interesting to see Alaska mentioned as an example of this
idea, especially given current political discussions.

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jcl
Sometimes they get free fruit, too:

[http://www.zug.com/gab/index.cgi?func=view_thread&thread...](http://www.zug.com/gab/index.cgi?func=view_thread&thread_id=31934)

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natch
And this factoid is on the front page of HN why, exactly?

They could all learn programming and then they would earn closer to
$130K/year, I suppose, but does that make it relevant to HN?

~~~
DabAsteroid
_They could all learn programming and then they would earn closer to
$130K/year_

How do you figure? Do high-IQ people normally become toll-collectors?

~~~
asnyder
This is anecdotal, but I'm pretty certain that most programmers don't have a
high IQ. However, readers of this site probably have a higher IQ than the
average programmer.

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ssharp
the state charges a dollar twenty five

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jimbokun
mean or median?

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Allocator2008
Reminds me of that twilight episode where a plant manager began replacing
workers with robots, up to and including his assistant manager. At the end,
the company that owned the plant replaced the plant manager himself with a
robot. It poignantly ends with the plant manager and the assistant he had
fired drinking together in a bar and discussing how people need the dignity of
work. A perfect "poetic justice" Twilight Zone "lesson of the week".

Replacing toll workers with automated systems may save money, and may be
inevitable, and trust me, I have quite a fascination with robots, but still, I
am sorry for those hapless humans in their way.

~~~
byrneseyeview
_I am sorry for those hapless humans in their way._

Don't worry! If you really care about reintroducing useless inefficiency by
paying people to do things a robot could do instead, there are plenty of
outlets for your passion. For example, why not hire someone to transcribe your
email by hand, instead of writing it directly? All the benefits of useless
labor, but taxpayers don't feel disgruntled about it!

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kingkongrevenge
That $70K figure is probably dramatically understating the real present value
of their compensation. State employee pensions and retirement health benefits
are ridiculous.

