Basically the accountant is being a fuckhead about the company paying for commutes, so the person responds in kind.
This is in Canada, so I hear about how the 407 is private and charges out of the ass for convenience, albeit convenience that’s worth it, but the reason it’s private seems to suck, and the reason it’s so expensive now is due to Ontario not limiting the price hike and so the company that owns the 407 now is free to charge whatever for the next 75 years.
What do you guys think of private toll roads and highways? I get that a lot of people here might not like public roads and taxes, but I’d rather not have to pay that much for a highway trip, no matter what.
Would you be better off it was a turnip farm? It is private land that I assume is paid for and maintained through private money.
There are lots of shady partnerships that should be dealt with on a case by case basis but in general I say to anyone complaining about tolls "take the long way or stop being poor".
Hah hah hah, nope. You're thinking capitalism. But we live in a cronyism society.
It's public land paid for and maintained in part through public money, that goes into private hands. Specifically, the government builds and maintains the highway, then sold it off to private companies, who then collect the profits on the highway being used. Strictly speaking, it was leased-for-99-years, not sold, which is why the government still helps maintain it. By modern evaluation, the lease price was 10% of what it was actually valued at, or in other words, the government effectively built and maintains it, then just gave it away. And of course, forbids any competitors from showing up.
In terms of "case by case basis" for shady partnerships, it would be a case. In fact, it's lost multiple lawsuits for its shady practices! ...But the payouts were only in the millions, when it makes tens of billions, so why would it care?