Charity Can’t Fix What Neoliberalism Has Broken
A British bus company recently reversed its plans to cut a bus route, but only after a wealthy local offered to fund it himself. A decent society can’t rely on wealthy do-gooders to save public services.
A bus in Dorset, United Kingdom, operated by private bus company FirstGroup, photographed in 2013. (charlie cars / Flickr)
If you wanted to travel across rural Dorset on a Sunday, four buses used to run the twenty miles from Bridport to Weymouth.
The route meanders through areas of significant poverty. Although Dorset may first inspire images of limestone arches and pretty coves, eleven areas of Dorset are within the top 20 percent most deprived nationally for multiple deprivation. Ten of these areas are in Weymouth and Portland, to which this bus runs.
This winter, however, private operator FirstGroup decided to axe the Sunday bus service until summer, citing it as “unsustainable on a commercial basis.”
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