[mousquet]

^ I'm sorry, I never meant to be patronizing or anything like that.
I probably have more empathy for the poor than you know. I believe poverty is only a psychological condition related to human cruelty and self-destruction.
I've never judged anybody by their money or bank account ever since I was a grown-up.

And contemporary capitalism is derailed. Like money makes money while we can't even really explain why any longer, blah blah blah, and that won't last for long. We all agree on this.
Whatever.

Here's our experience here in Paris anyway.
When it's free, lots of people tend to treat it like shit, literally. They throw their garbage on the floor in subway cars. I saw little bourgeois boys/kids from Central Paris dirtying their own subway by meaningless gross/amateur graffitis just for trying to show they were "bad boys"... Laughable things like that. It's pathetic.
But when they have to pay a little bit more for it, they suddenly take it as something more serious and deserving of respect.

It's a bit like teachers underpaid in public secondary education. Students call them losers because their salaries are sometimes outrageously low, while we all owe a whole lot to them for having taken us to college somehow.

Idk whether you see what I mean, but some will understand. Being free is actually bad for now. Given the current spoiled aspect of our society full of selfishness, it brings about some trouble.
Making people pay for it is better. Somehow, it makes them more respectful. Call it moralistic if you will, it is still the truth here.

Only the real poor should have free access to the transit network. People making a living have to pay. Especially the Central Paris bourgeois for their kids, until they get their driving licence...