If you're caught jumping the turnstiles or sneaking through the exit barriers on the Paris Metro, you'll face fines up to $60. Sacrebleu!
Subway freeloaders have banded together to come up with the perfectly logical solution: a scofflaw insurance fund!
The answer, here in the land that gave the world the motto "All for one, one for all," is as typically French as it is ingenious: They've banded together to set up what are, essentially, scofflaw insurance funds, seasoned with a dollop of revolutionary fervor.
For about $8.50 a month, those who join one of these raffish-sounding mutuelles des fraudeurs can rest easy knowing that, if they get busted for refusing to be so bourgeois as to pay to use public transit, the fund will cough up the money for the fine.
It provides a little peace of mind, however ethically dubious, in a time of economic uncertainty.
But for many of these fraudeurs, cheating the system and forming a co-op isn't just about saving money; it's about striking a blow against a capitalist state that favors the haves over the have-nots. Fare dodgers of the world, unite!
Henry Chu of LA Times Column One has the story: Link
Our anarchist-loving society is totally screwed up.
This is just to use the subway. Man, it's unfair and many track lines are plagued by strikes (and technical downtimes) for weeks all the year long, so I understand that people try to "fraud" as much as they can.
And as an unexpected negative side effect, everybody keep to favor their cars, cars are more reliable, quicker in most of the commute schemes and far less expensive.
While I don't agree with it in the case of public transportation, I believe that, in general, public disobedience like this is very important for progress. As long as nobody is getting hurt but an outdated system in dire need of change, of course.
Plus your example is pretty exagerated: how many kids need a monthly subscription for 6 zones? Some teenagers could need one, but they get special discounts.
There are discounts for students and some departments actually pay half of the subscription for them. It's not as expensive as you're claiming.
I've actually met a few guys who are part of the Mutuelle des Fraudeurs. Surprize: not one lived in the suburbs. All of them had plenty enough money to pay for the train fares. For the most part, they were self-inflated bobos who explained that "it was an act of rebellion against the system". Except for one guy, who explained to me he didn't want to pay for the pass because "the government uses it to spy on you".
So there you go: buying 1501€ Wayfarer glasses without lenses = awesome; paying for your train = square.