Laugh or cry?

Reason.tv has fun with LA's rail transit.  "17 miles in just 78 minutes."  If it is laugh or cry, laughing is better. Today's LA Times refers to LA MTA's problems with federal auditors.

David Levinson has a bunch of links and commentators chiming in on the question of whether transportation in the U.S. is "overpriced".  In quotes because it's a tricky question.  It evokes some kind of cost-plus accounting.  But that relies on accounting assumptions, including how to allocate sunk costs and what residuals or subsidies we can or should assume.  But are costs incurred too high?  How could they not be in the land of politics, regulations, subsidies and monopolies?

Are consumer electronics "overpriced"?  It's a silly question because steeply declining prices along with amazing quality improvements have been breathtaking.  Competition and minimal regulation are the source of the magic. 

We seemingly have one foot in that world and the other foot in the world that the reason.tv clip visits.  What a life.