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Estonia To Become the World's First Free Public Transport Nation (citylab.com)
On July 1st, the country of Estonia will create the largest 24/7 free public transit zone in the world, making it feasibly possible to travel by bus from one end of the 1.3 million-strong Baltic nation to the other without paying a cent. CityLab reports: Estonia is already a world leader in free public transit: In 2013, all public transit in its capital, Tallinn, became free to local residents (but not tourists or other visitors, even those from other parts of the country). The new national free-ride scheme with extend this model even further, making all state-run bus travel in rural municipalities free and extending cost-free transit out from the capital into other regions. The plan will not, however, extend Tallinn's existing free public transit policies to other Estonian cities, and it also won't make riding Tallinn transit free to visitors (at least, not initially). So while most of the country's land area and population -- which is overwhelmingly concentrated around Tallinn -- should get fare-free daily lives, it's not precisely the case that no Estonian will ever buy a bus ticket in their own country again. Further reading: Pop-Up City
There is no such thing as free.
(This is not to say that it is not cost-effective to bother with collecting a user fee.)
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Ach complexity of life. The 'taxation is theft' is only uttered by selfish pricks then?
That maybe true in a country like Switzerland where population has some say in how much is taken from them and what is happening with it. It is a limited influence but it is more than anybody else in this world has. There the people uttering 'tax is theft' mantra can be considered to be the pricks as you say. Everywhere else there are significant problems with such blind generalization.
To be more specific. I do not want my taxes spent on the ships at coast of Libya fishing people from the sea and bringing them to Italy instead of the nearest coast. I have no influence on that. I do not want administrators of the state I support with my taxes signing CETA yet they did it. The list is very long. Take this: military services in my country cost something around 50Mld and they want to increase that spending. The purpose of having military may be disputed by some but we have it and it is damned expensive. Yet the country very expensive submarines are not operational, the same with frigates. the fleet of fighter jets is not operational either even during good weather (the planes were not design for flying in rain and snow apparently) because there is no munition for them. The SW used to control transport helicopters is faulty which we found after one of them crash landed killing all crew. Why bother then? The list of such things is very long. I am forced to finance all this w/o a chance of changing the way the money is spent. So yes in such cases taxes are theft. I say this even if I accept that the taxes are necessary means of financing things like schools, security and infrastructure. I pay very high taxes - this is in no way justified by the things the larger federal community I live in gets for it. The crooks that rule here belong into jail for fraud. Yet they lambast in the tv how much people like me are nazis and you call me a prick. I read somewhere - no taxation without representation. Where is my representation? The pricks in parliament are not my representation - the proxy function they are supposed to fulfill is not working for years now. In current state of affairs it is all a theft for me.