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You DON’T debate. You simply state “you’re wrong” and proceed as normal. For example, shale oil. You simply state that my conclusions are wrong, but never say why. The facts are there, I link to them, and you ignore it.

Or your insane support for high speed rail. I say it’s $2 trillion, and you swear I’m out to lunch. Then you admit that yes, it’s a plan for 17,000 miles of track. And yes, it runs about $150 million per mile. But insist it won’t be anywhere near $2 trillion. Hmmm - 17,000 times 150,000,000 is 2,550,000,000,000 - over $2 trillion.

Here’s what I posted on another thread and you’ve ignored it, because you simply cannot refute the facts:

Willie,

Here are the numbers:

Assume from day 1 we have 15 MILLION riders a day (right now, Amtrak has around 70,000 riders a day; this is a 20,000% increase from day one).

We invest the $2 trillion over 20 years.

For 20 years, we maintain 15 million workday riders - 5 days a week, 50 weeks (vacations/holidays) a year.

When we’re done with the 20 years, we have spent our $2 trillion. And we have racked up 75 BILLION rides.

Meaning we spent - on just the capital costs, not including bond interest or operational costs or maintenance costs - $26.67 PER TRIP. For each of those 75 billion rides.

So if we assume an astronomically high, totally unrealistic increase in ridership (20,000%), and zero costs other than the capital costs, we end up spending $26.67 per rider per day.

THIS is the reality. If operational costs are zero, and maintenance costs are zero, and interest paid on the bonds is zero, tickets would have to cost $26.67 each to just cover the capital costs of the track.

Operational costs would be on top of this.

So again, how do you pay for it? If it’s going to be funded by user fees - like the Interstate Highway System - then tickets will need to start at $60 and go up from there. And that’s with the totally pie-in-the-sky estimate of riders.

If the number of riders are only 1.5 million per day - just a 20 times increase in rider - we pay $266.67 PER TRIP in capital costs. You ride the train 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month? Your cost would be $5,333 per MONTH.

It just doesn’t pencil out. Period.

Tell me where the numbers are wrong.

I’ve added zero interest, zero operational costs, zero maintenance costs.

I’ve given you ridership levels beyond what you could imagine.

Ridership that is 50% HIGHER than total ridership in all of Europe (10 million total rides). That’s for high speed, low speed and commuter trains combined. In a continent with 35% more population. With a multi-generational history of riding the rails. And I’m giving you the benefit of adding another 50%.

I’ve tilted the field so far to your favor in every aspect that you could not ask for anything more.

And it still doesn’t work.

Where are the numbers wrong, Willie?