> The AirTrain from JFK costs $5, more than it costs to go from anywhere to anywhere else in all of NYC on the subway
I'm okay with this. If I'm going to the airport, I'm identifying myself as a New Yorker (or visitor) with the means to travel by air. It doesn't make sense to use a minimum wage worker in the Bronx's taxes to subsidize my vacations.
Broadly, however, I agree that our lack of downtown-to-airport express rail lines is embarrassing.
Their employers should pay them more or buy them tickets. They've been pushing, instead, for a subsidy [1]. But at the end of the day, that's still using lower-income New Yorkers' wages to subsidize a system which principally (though not exclusively) benefits higher-income New Yorkers.
How are they "subsidizing" your vacations? That's one less dollar you're spending at the restaurants they work at or at the other businesses that employ them. So they're subsidizing the airport because the more you pay at the airport, the less you spend in the city. I'd rather spend that money in the local businesses than give the Port Authority another dollar they can squander.
I'm okay with this. If I'm going to the airport, I'm identifying myself as a New Yorker (or visitor) with the means to travel by air. It doesn't make sense to use a minimum wage worker in the Bronx's taxes to subsidize my vacations.
Broadly, however, I agree that our lack of downtown-to-airport express rail lines is embarrassing.