Reckless Spending

[Geee]

Human Events:




Nothing more clearly illustrates the utter irresponsibility of Barack Obama than his advocacy of "high-speed rail." The man is not stupid. He knows how to use words that will sound wonderful to people who do not bother to stop and think.

High-speed rail may be feasible in parts of Europe or Japan, where the population density is much higher than in the United States. But, without enough people packed into a given space, there will never be enough riders to repay the high cost of building and maintaining a high-speed rail system.

Building a high-speed rail system between Los Angeles and San Francisco may sound great to people who don't give it any serious thought. But we are a more spread-out country than England, France or Japan. The distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco is greater than the distance from London to Paris-- by more than 100 miles.



In Japan, the distance between Tokyo and Osaka is comparable to the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco. But the population of Osaka alone is larger than the combined populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco-- and Tokyo has millions more people than Osaka. That is why it can make sense to have a "bullet train" running between Osaka and Tokyo, but makes no sense to build one between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

[righteousmomma]

Great expla!

Another thing is that in all these high density locations in Europe and Asia there are local trains and/or metros to pick people up and take them home.

We were just saying the other day that if we chose to ride Amtrak to Charlotte to visit our fam there that it would require them an hour's drive to meet us at the station or us an expensive taxi ride to their house. It is also normally a 3 hour or less drive to their door. Riding the train takes about the same time to downtown Charlotte. Plus and most important:"Where would we put the pup?"

In Europe the pup is usually allowed to ride with you in a "bus bag".

[Pepper]

High speed rail would be so wonderful to quickly bring inner city community organizers and their constituents from one capital to another state capital.