said by pnh102 :

Roads in the USA are paid for by gas taxes, tolls and car and truck registration fees. In most states, only people who drive and/or own vehicles pay for road maintenance. Any person who does not wish to pay for roads can simply choose to not drive or own a vehicle, and he/she will not be paying for roads.

said by TScheisskopf :

Buildout. Economies of Scale. Growth of customer base.

said by mcmillan :

Any person who does not wish to be breathing contaminated air can simply stop breathing. The availability of public transport makes it a difficult solution.

said by vpoko :

Then explain why you, a resident of MD, is paying for our Big Dig in Boston? Federal income taxes pay for roads.

said by mcmillan :

"Why give [consumers] a Rolls Royce when a Chevrolet will do?"
Jerry Fenn in 2003
Why NOT, Jerry?

THE LONG-TERM HARM TO CONSUMERS... WTF?

said by pnh102 :

Each additional customer requires that someone dig a trench, run cable that also needs to be purchased, install equipment that has to be maintained and pay more people to maintain said equipment.

Basically, the more customers they add, the more money they will lose. Now granted, over time, they may make enough to break even, but when I see that they've spent $100 million to wire up a few cities, that just seems like a very large economic hump to get over.

said by RR Conductor :

Roads are also paid for with inflated subsidies, thankfully, things are slowly changing.

said by rahlquist :

While technically true keep in mind that in the case of a NEW customer these costs are going to happen anyway when they hook them up to sewer, water, cable, phone, and in some cases underground power.

said by mcmillan :

"Why give [consumers] a Rolls Royce when a Chevrolet will do?"
Jerry Fenn in 2003
Why NOT, Jerry?