Tuesday, February 07, 2012

CA high-speed rail scam

A commenter at the LA Times calling himself "zardoz" spells out the problem with high-speed rail, even though he wants it:
    I don't know the answer to this, but I have trouble understanding why China, Japan, Europe and other places were able to build them and the USA just can't do it. I woud ride it. If they made a bullet train going to Las Vegas, it would sell out!
Ah, where to begin. Leftist Europe-envy is no reason to throw away many billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Perhaps zardoz wants a 60% tax rate to fuel the massive government spending projects, like in Europe? And zardoz thinks a link between LA and Vegas would sell out. Agreed. Oddly, zardoz isn't asking why this link is not even under consideration.
Posted by at

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Zardoz doesn't have to ask why the Las Vegas line isn't under consideration because it is under consideration. Also, Japan and Germany have comparable Corporate tax rates to the US and Japan has a lower personal tax rate. While Germany has a higher personal tax rate, there quality of life indicators are comparable.

Furthermore, Amtrak is over 80% self sufficient, a number that has been rising every year for the last 10 years, ie, it only had to ask for 1/2 billion in subsidies and those were needed only because of the inefficient long haul routes. Hell, California subsidizes highways to the tune of 30 billion a year for maintenance alone.

2/07/2012 08:19:00 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)