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Politics : A US National Health Care System?
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To: Road Walker who wrote (36647)5/8/2014 4:01:44 PM
From: i-node  Read Replies (1) of 42652
 
>> That's why we have so much of it!

We don't have much of it because HSR doesn't make economic sense in most areas of this country. Our debt will nearly double in the next ten years. The American People cannot even agree on how to subsist without new debt let alone pay down the existing debt. And you want to blow money on transportation that no one will take advantage of.

>> President Lincoln should have gone to the capital markets to build the transcontinental I suppose.

If you want to see if you can sell bonds to private investors to do it, backed by private companies, more power to you. If you can find a few billionaires to put their fortunes on the line as was done in the 1860s, go for it. Feel free to use the right-of-way granted by the Federal government.

Government bonds (and private debt backed by future profits) jumpstarted the railroad industry at a time when there was no competing mode of transportation. It was a legitimate function of government at that time because it was essential. Today it is not. There is a difference.

As a nation, we chose decades ago to develop the Interstate Highway System at great cost. That was our choice; we could have build rail lines instead. That is not what people wanted. So we have what we have today and people don't want high speed rail. No matter how "cool" it is.
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