Man, all this raging is wearing me out.

I have to say, as for the T-raging, it’s really a matter of principle for me more than anything, because, lately at least, I haven’t been taking the T at all when I can ride my bike. And, as I’ve said, the benefits of biking extend well beyond health and beauty. It is actually quicker from where I live to where I’m bound. And of course, it’s cheaper. And, yes, even four or five bucks a day matters to me. I mean, that’s a burrito at El Pelon. Which tastes a lot better than the T.

I tell ya, there’s a lot that’s been getting on my nerves lately, and this ridiculous fare increase is just sort of the cherry on top.

Other things high up on my bullshit list this week:

● The city council voting itself and the mayor a 17% pay raise after six minutes of debate and with no roll call vote.

● This whole new Big Dig scandal. The Globe reports: “Six managers from Aggregate Industries NE Inc. were indicted in federal court on charges of running a conspiracy that delivered 5,000 truckloads of tainted concrete — 1.2 percent of the concrete used on the entire project — to the Big Dig over nine years. The managers used a web of falsified documents to cover up their ploy, federal prosecutors said.”

● A million bucks in theft of state-owned property over the past two years according to the state auditor, reports WHDH-TV.

● Believe it or not, this Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism thing, because it exposes once again, not only the cynicism of the publishing industry, but the breathtaking cynicism and hypocrisy of Harvard and the whole Ivy League game. And there’s something about little Kaavya, whose parents paid IvyWise, an agency that specializes in getting “borderline students” into ivy league schools, twenty grand to get her into Harvard in the first place. And then it turns out she needed help even to plagiarize other people’s work! 17th Street Productions, the Morris Agency, Little, Brown, and Mama and Papa Viswanathan all kicked in to “shape” the novel. It was a team effort.

● Tom Cruise.

● Patrick Kennedy, an alcoholic and prescription drug addict, who abuses his privileges? A Kennedy? You’re kidding! It’s shocking! I mean, come on. Is this news?

Whatever. I’m going out tonight and drinking some more margaritas (I had two at lunch already), and I recommend everyone out there do the same.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! (I’m doing my coochie-coochie-coochie Charo immitation right now.)

The truth is I’m a cheap bastard in the first place. I quit buying cigarettes and started bumming them when a pack of Viceroys got to about what a trip on the T costs now. I’ll quit the T, too, and start bumming rides, if the fare gets too out of hand. If you’re not good with money, you’ve got to be good at making friends with money. Those are the only two ways to get by in the world today.

Remember, it was not so long ago that we were getting the same service for 85¢. When I first came to Boston, it was 85¢ and it stayed that way for nearly a decade. And it was an impressive system at 85¢ a pop.

But nothing would make it worth a buck-seventy. Nothing would make it worth $750 a year for a monthly subway pass. Nothing. Not flowers and chocolates. Not champagne and sushi. Not daily foot-rubs, tongue baths and blowjobs from a personal harem of plus-size T conductors in thongs and the GM himself. Nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

I’ve heard a lot of people’s ideas about what would make it worth it to them: improved infrastructure, updated equipment, more trains, faster service. But that’s way too pie in the sky for me, especially since the proposed increase is not earmarked for improvements, but for merely maintaining “basic services”.

The problem with the T is that the higher the fares, the worse the service will get, because riders will be ever more outraged by the ever-lousier yet more expensive service, and T employees will continue to be rude and unreceptive while providing that lousy service for which they are so well-known and in which they apparently take great pride. Because the T currently exists to serve the T, and not those who ride it.

We know, as the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says, that “a major reason for [the T’s annual operating defecit] is the fact that Boston’s transit work force is among the highest paid in the country.” Consider that almost 55% of the operating budget of the T goes to payroll, and a third of that to fringe benefits. We have all heard about the generous pension offered by the T, for which employees are eligible after only 23 years. An antiquated and counterproductive system of seniority still governs the T. In ’05 The MBTA Advisory Board observed that rampant absenteeism is costing the T $4 million a year in overtime. Thus far, the T has done nothing about it. The T continues to reward bad behavior and lackluster job performance.

Add to this the BTS’s findings that in addition to payroll, bloated costs are due to the “MBTA’s outdated equipment and the fact that it generates much of its own power in inefficient, oil-burning power plants,” and it’s clear that the problem is systemic. The cost of fares will continue to rise while improvements will be minimal or redundant (like the informative flashy new electronic signs in Downtown Crossing that say simply, “No Smoking” and “for more information go to mbta.com”–Gee, thanks).

This is why it’s hard for me to justify paying more for fare, because it’s not going to fix what’s broken: the unions, bad contracts for grossly overpriced generally faulty equipment as the rule, and the legislature’s “forward-funding” plan, which just ain’t cutting it, either.

And one last little note. I just think it’s ironic, all that money that went into the fiscal black hole that is the Big Dig. These fare hikes are about priorities–of commuters, of the T, of this city.