On a previous post I also mentioned Long Island as needing some traffic congestion relief.
There are SOME PLACES where NO MORE ROAD CONSTRUCTION IS POSSIBLE, but existing train lines can be extended and make a big difference.
And it would be nice if you at least admitted your criticism of me was factually wrong about who funded the roads in the 50’s.
I copied and pasted diretly from your post regarding the the roadways in the areas of powerful congressmen. further another poster referenced and linked that fedgov fronted 90% of the financing.
Secondly, if it is so needed and profitable, private industries sould be lining up to invest and pay for it. Since they are not, the interest does not seem to be as great as you suggest.
Where I live, I can only get satellite internet. Same as most of my neighbors. Much of my banking needs to be conducted online. I don't expect you to pay for my convenience. If one of the cable carriers felt it was profitable to lay the cable and infrastructure, they would do so.
All of these programs are great when someone else is paying for them. In case people on here haven't realized, we are rapidly running out of other people's money, but the bills are still coming due.
Why don't we cut unecassary spending in the government, reduce the deficit and debt and lower taxes on the private sector. Then maybe private companies would be more willing to risk capital on building these railways everyone is talking about. Or maybe, just maybe the private sector will develop omething even etter that a plane, car, or train; something we can't even imagine right now. Believing government was the answer for everything got us into the position we are in now.
Everyone is all for reducing spending until it is their pet project.
I’m not one who would benefit at all from building these networks. I’m just making the point that since we do spend transportation funds already, including from targeted taxes, it makes sense to build those things that might actually alleviate traffic issues.
As for the private investors not lining up; some things are too large for the private sector to take the lead on.
We went to the space program on the government’s dime. Spin-off technology from that includes some amazing composite materials that private enterprise makes great use of now, and profits from it.
DARPA invented the internet that you use to pay your online bills with. Private investment didn’t get involved until nearly 30 years later!!
We will never be a country that goes back to what we were a hundred years ago. We do need to do a better job of return on investment on what we do spend.
And sometimes it requires the federal government to take the first step, because investors won’t take the risk if the numnbers are in the tens of billions.
The private sector does great with either the next generation of a discovery or the out of the box thinking in technology, processes, etc.
But it does not have the ability to invest in everything.
As for the person who noted the excess cost of the highway system, it seems to me that the final cost, over all those years, seems quite reasonable for the benefits we accrued (a better lifestyle for those that wanted to live the suburban life, the ability to disperse businesses away from a concentrated central location, etc.)