How much more would you pay for things from far away if you knew that they were shipped by train? Assume that encouraging trains as means of shipment instead of trucks will reduce costs and pollution in the long run.

If it reduces costs, it will be cheaper and won't require any subsidation on my part, but I'd pay for decreased pollution.

Frankly, my dear...

Good idea, but I'm a college student. Saving money is more than just a pasttime.

I chose 1% but of course, here where I live, lots of truck trailers are already shipped by train for long distances, then unloaded, picked up by trucks and distributed in short hauls.

And how is the consumer to tell the mode of transport for their products?

I'd agree to about a 10% hike in price, for the time being. But if prices didn't start going down to the equivalent of sending it by truck... then I would switch back to truck. (mind you, since a train can fit so much more stuff on it.. I would think it would be cheaper from the start)

If it reduced costs, why would I have to pay more? What are the hidden assumptions in this question?

It depends greatly on the ultimate final cost of the product. I'd be will to pay 10-25% more for, say, oranges but much less for, say, a new car.

Love trains!

I would encourage train shipping if indeed it did reduce costs and pollution, and if the costs were reduced, I would not need to pay more. However, it does put people out of work....

The idea is that by paying more now for goods that were certified "shipped by train" we could vote with our dollars to encourage shipping companies to change their habits and go with a more efficient and cleaner transport method. Many pollution reducing advancements save money, but are resisted by the industries until they are forced or until there are financial incentives. I'd like to encourage enlightened self interest.

The environment doesn't matter - in fact, I encourage the destruction of the Earth. It's the only impetus we have for the continuation of the space program - lets get the hell off of this planet!

...yeah, so we can spread like a virus to the next planet and destroy that one too.

It still doesn't make sense to me that we are being asked to pay more if trains reduce cost. To reduce pollution significantly, I'd be willing to pay 10% more. Atzilut: why? I can understand not wanting to save the four-eared bandersnatch or whatever, but we are steadily progressing toward a world which is unlivable for humans, and already many deaths are caused by pollution. Do you dispute this or do you just not see it getting that bad in your lifetime, and fudge future generations?

I really don't want to pay more, sorry

the "environmental" ""argument"" doesn't fly with me.

don't forget there are MANY other things you can do to improve the ecology of the world besides using more trains

I try to support environmentally-minded ventures, even if it costs me some. I consider that a "donation". I recycle even if it costs me money to do so, etc. It's sort of like "start-up funding".

Option two. What exactly do you mean by reduce costs? To the shipper? to me?
This is one of the few situations where I feel government meddling is warranted. If a particular transportation type is more polluting than another, then I feel that said type should pay for the pollution, internalizing the cost of the pollution (fuel taxes are probably best). The only problem is that money collected through fuel taxes will probably not be spent on transport related things (developing cleaner engines, etc.) since it's all just money to our congresscritters.

I wouldn't pay more, but if the shippers realized that shipping by train is cheaper, then they can make a bigger profit by shipping it that method and still charging the same price.. therefor, shipping by train would be happening already. **thank you daver.. I like that.. 'congresscritters'... hehehehhehehehehehehhehehe

There are so many other reasons to pick one product over another ... and anyway, there are more effective ways to encourage train shipping, such as being sure to stop your school bus every 20 feet in front of all the trucks.