On Feb 17, 4:22*pm, "DGDevin" wrote:
"Doug Miller" *wrote in message

...

If high-speed rail were commercially viable in the United States, it would
already exist.

Urban rail systems in America disappeared in large part because after WWII
the automobile and petroleum industries saw far greater profits to be made
selling cars and buses and the fuel to run them, not because streetcars
weren't a good form of public transport.

And looking at how air travel is going these days, the idea of high speed
rail is starting to look pretty good. *In recent years my wife and I have
elected to make 1,500 mile road trips rather than set foot in an airport,
and that was before air travellers had to choose between being groped or
x-rayed.

But WHO is going to pay for it? HOW are we going to pay for it?
Right after WWII, the United States had the only real, working economy
in the world. We built everything for everybody. We rebuilt other
nations so they could fend for themselves. We were bringing money
INTO this country hand over fist.

What is happening now? The money is pouring out of this country. How
does China pay for its high speed rail? By the money you and I pay
for all the freaking goods they produce and sell in places like Wal-
Mart, Home Depot, Best Buy and all those other stores. Because we, as
consumers, have demanded "the Chine Price" for so freaking long that
we have almost pushed manufacturing and other businesses that used to
bring money into this country out to places like China (especially
China).

Another way China is getting money to build those things is from all
the freaking interest this country is paying them on the Federal bonds
they are buying from us. So to answer your question, it is really the
NEXT GENERATION of Americans who will be funding just about *every*
publicly funded project in China.





Fuel prices are going to have the final say on this issue. *When gas
eventually gets back to five (or ten) bucks a gallon the train is going to
be a lot more attractive at any speed. *A lot of things happened because gas
was cheap, but the clock is ticking on that situation.