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I'd Use My Name but Internet's avatar

I think to myself as I read phantasmagorical cost and revenue projections:

- Do companies really think the public is that stupid

- Are politicians so desparate to spend my money that they ignore reality

In end I conclude, unfortunately, that both are true.

Hoist The Black Flag's avatar

Would they spend the money if some of it didn't end up in the pockets of their friends and families?

I'd Use My Name but Internet's avatar

For sure, having the money flushed away land in your buddies’ pockets is just the cherry on top.

ken terry's avatar

My, my. The cynic in you really comes out in this piece. Not to say you are in any way incorrect or exaggerating. What puzzles me here is that the voters keep falling for the sales pitch. We (FYI: I voted no for said Bullet Train) are really slow to learn.

Hoist The Black Flag's avatar

I consider myself more of a realist. The problem is that any "negative' comments about government, even if backed by proof, are seen as cynical.

Being Charlie Brown to the government's Linus and believing that this time they'd hold the football for us seems to be the approach of most of the voting public.

Christine St. John's avatar

And one must notice what companies are already (and will continue to) gain the big bucks...of course, those Carney is already connected to. No politics there, unless anyone notices that they are getting dollars from our taxes, not from Carney's pockets.

UncleMac's avatar

Even Trudeau the Elder looked at high speed rail and said "Nope" because it didn't make sense. Along comes King Carney, looks at the money laundering possibilities and we're a go!!

Kinda pisses me off for them to call it a "nation building project" since the vast, vast majority of the population will never see this insane train if it does get built... but all of us, our kids and our grandkids will get to pay for it, probably forever.

BigOinSeattle's avatar

Thanks for giving honorable mention to our California high speed rail project, which I expect will outdo its competitors. I have worked in the city of San Francisco since the late nineties but I don’t think I will ever see this completed!!

Hoist The Black Flag's avatar

It's the grandaddy of them all.

Warmek's avatar

The project (if I am understanding it) has contradictory parameters.

Trains are heavy. Trains take a long time to accelerate and decelerate.

You can have High Speed Rail. You can have a lot of stops. You cannot have both simultaneously.

Like, I really feel that this is almost too obvious to even need to state out loud, but I'll do so anyway: If the train stops a lot, it's not "high speed".

Hoist The Black Flag's avatar

Right. I'm not sure what the plan is for stops but I would imagine they wouldn't be frequent.

I'd be on board with the train if it wasn't for the fact that it's a government project destined to be billions overbudget.

Warmek's avatar

Well, yes, there's obviously that *too*. Which is a perfectly reasonable factor to make one decide that Yet Another Government Boondoggle is a terrible idea. But just even from the pure mechanical engineering / physics perspective, so many of these projects are just wishes, fairy dust, and unicorn farts in terms of what they promise.