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.)
DARPA invented the internet that you use to pay your online bills with. Private investment didn’t get involved until nearly 30 years later!!
Yes, and those programs served a National Defense purpose allowing the advancements in military communications... something that IS under the FEDERAL Government's Constitutional authority. The space programs also were supposed to be for National Defense. The government could not succesfully create what the internet is today without the private sector. Likewise, laser eye surgery technology is a spin off of missile guidance systems technology...... but the government IS not in the profitable business of running optometry clinics.
If State or local governments want it, fine no problem, that's their business and their residents have the power of t he ballot box. Don't make me in another state pay for it. We talk about liberal's disregard for the Constitution when it suits them. Now, how are we going to turn around and do the same?
The English Channel tunnel and the Alaska pipeline were both privately financed at costs in the “tens of billions”. The difference between private and public financing is that a private project has to make economic sense, while a public one does not.