Cheater!
January 31st, 2023
They almost got the kid. It was a matter of only seconds and he would be caught and his illegal free ride would be over. That would be embarrassing for all involved but justice would be served. And rightly so in my opinion. A guy from work was almost caught by a ticket inspector this morning as he was riding the bus to work. He got on the bus, saw a colleague, and started walking to sit by him, but that guy slightly nodded toward him and toward the ticket machine on the bus. The kid understood the meaning of that and bought the ticket to show it to the inspector who was just waiting in wait to pounce on those like the kid. And the kid proudly said as he was describing it — “it was the first time I bought a bus ticket in more than a year and a half of riding buses, not getting caught once and today I got lucky as well!” — and most of the people listening just nodded with understanding and acceptance.
Being proud of being a cheater! Who the hell are the people who surround me at work and with whom I interact daily?
I guess you can say that an opportunity makes a cheater, but that would be an incorrect take on this — for me that is wrong, that stupid and antisocial behavior on display here is symptomatic of many ills of our society. In my city there are only roving ticket inspectors, boarding one bus, checking tickets (possibly writing citations), and moving onto a different bus. There is no checking of tickets when a person is getting on a bus. The last time I was stopped and checked for a bus ticket was about two years ago. The chances of getting checked are really very slim. Most people buy and validate tickets, and a lot of people have a weekly or monthly bus pass, but there are others who just run their luck and use mass transport without a ticket knowing those chances and risking it. If caught, the fine is equivalent to the cost of a monthly pass — so I heard arguments that it is also a cost-saving thing — even if caught after several months of using buses without a ticket that person is still ahead on the money balance.
But that is still extreme cheating!
How a person doing it doesn’t see that is wrong to use a paid service without paying and then on top of that be proud of that? It is blatant cheating of municipal services off a source of income. And those prices are not really high, there were no increases in ticket prices in several years. And even over the last year, with raging inflation and sky-high gas prices, the cost of tickets stayed the same. What is the point? I could possibly half understand if that was done by someone down on his luck, with no funds at all and a need to get places. But as a conscious choice? That is terribly wrong and I feel angry about this whole situation. Not only angry at a person doing it (and being proud of it) but also at others being so accepting and understanding of blatant cheating. And I also am a little angry at myself — for not speaking up and calling that guy on it.
