“I completely agree with you that the current status of air travel is a great argument for more high speed trains. Unfortunately, the scale required for effective interstate travel is tremendously expensive. It would require some of those government/business partnerships that we just don’t do well in the US—reference “The Big Dig” in Boston.”
- The Big Dig sure has been a problematic enterprise, but I don’t know if it’s typically American to fail in the department of government/business cooperation. But in any case, I guess you’re right in assuming such a partnership will be necessary if the US is going to get more of high speed trains.
“Also, please don’t use the term “US Americans.” It is a politically motivated term that was calculated to antagonize Americans. At least in my case it works.”
- Okay, I’ll remember that. However, the term “Americans” isn’t really correct, even if it mostly ‘means’ citizens of the USA when people talk about “Americans”.
Would you say “US citizens” is a better expression than “US Americans”?
"Americans" is how we think of ourselves.
OTOH, Mexicans regard themeslves as "Americans" and are somewhat offended by the American presumption that only people in the US are from the Americas...
You can't win this one...
While US citizen is acceptable, the correct term is American. There is no other country called America. Yes, there are two continents that contain the name America, but when referring to someone from their continent of origin the correct term would be either North or South American.
Sorry, but this has become a sore point with me lately.
As to the hybrid government/business projects, it isn’t that it is any harder to do here, but it goes against the way business is typically done here. While very common in Europe, these partnerships are, to a certain extent, antithetical to the American way of business. To many it is seen as not only a tremendous overstretch of the government into private enterprise, but also a tremendous opportunity for graft and corruption. Beyond that, the government is usually viewed as just not very good at business.
However, the tremendous costs involved in building rail on such a large scale makes unlikely that many American corporations would be likely to try and tackle such a challenge. In fact most of the companies that are involved in the early stages of these projects are either European or a limited partnership between a European country.
I’m certainly not a business historian. I’m sure that there are probably many examples of cooperative projects that have worked out well, I’m just not aware of many.
Probably. But, while all of the western hemisphere is considered the "Americas"; when one speaks of "Americans", by virtue of being the only country in the west with America in the name, the US is the country that is implied.
So, simply calling us Americans is acceptable usage.