[originaltext]M: Do you know the thing that’s always struck me as odd about opi

M: Do you know the thing that’s always struck me as odd about opinion polls?
W: What’s that?
M: The percentages. Like recently there was a survey about what people thought about traffic, and petrol prices, and public car parks. In some car parks it now costs something like ＄5 to park a car for half an hour.
W: Yeah, but I don’t see what you’re getting at.
M: What I mean is the percentages in the results. So there might be 70% of people who complained about the high petrol prices, and 60% who want to see the traffic reduced, and 65% who think the car park charges are too high. Does that mean that there are 35% who actually think the charges are OK and would even be prepared to pay more, and another 30% who think the petrol prices are OK? I mean that’s absurd. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think they’re too high.
W: Well, actually I think we should pay more.
M: Come on, you’re joking.
W: No, seriously. I think we should pay more for petrol, even twice as much maybe, and certainly far more for inner city car parks.
M: But why?
W: More taxes should be charged on petrol, I think, to discourage people from using cars, and a kind of graded charging system for car parks depending on how far they are from the city center.
M: What do you mean?
W: Well, if you park your car quite far from the city center then you’ll pay a nominal amount as a kind of reward for not polluting the city center. Well, the closer you get to the center, the more you are punished. Prices in the center should be totally prohibitive. I mean with an efficient bus or tram service there’s no excuse for using cars.
M: Yeah, but you can’t punish people who don’t use their car to go into town. I mean if you doubled the price of petrol, it would cost people a fortune to go anywhere, even on short trips, and especially on holidays.
W: Don’t use your car then. Use a train.
M: Well, anyway, I still can’t believe that 30% of those people who said car park charges were OK all think the same as you.
W: Well, maybe that’s where you are wrong. Just think about what I’ve said and you’ll realize that perhaps it’s not as stupid as it sounds.