For instance, the Helsinki tram service runs at a loss, only making 40% of what it costs to operate. This is paid by the various municipalities, and they keep increasing the prices to recoup more of the cost. However, if everyone stopped using the public transport systems available, it would lead to massive congestion on the roads, which would require spending far, far more from those same municipalities.

One of the problems is that any human organization analyzes a system taking into consideration only several variables which affect different consumer groups all related one another, and most of the systems are affected by way far more variables and impact many groups than those considered. In the tram service, we can take into account direct cost for municipalities (which at the end of the day is also the citizens they represent), car traffic, citizens going to work and paying taxes, less pollution and thus less healthcare costs, less gas taxes to central governments and more money to consumers which can spend on goods benefiting local commerce and indirect taxes such as VAT and so on...

It is extremely complex to model a system and that is the reason most institutions reduce complexity by taking into account only a few variables forgetting the impact of the rest which many times are way more important than the ones considered. As the models are poor, they poorly represent all "consumer" groups and end up with a bad outcome for several of them.

One clear example is the words Donald Trump said about gas impact in the US when the Iran war started. He said it would not impact American citizens as they have plenty of reserves. Supply may not impact but price is doing so as prices comes from global supply/demand and with price of gas going up, mostly every good is affected.