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Re: What's Going On In the San Joaquin Valley?
Author: Weary . . . .
Date: 09-12-2014 - 00:10
I don't know where the "Holier than thou" get their food. - maybe manna from heaven for all I know.
But certainly not from a water sucking cotton plant on a desert. Nor in the long run from wet farms in an unsuitable dry climate. That the plain arrogance of such ridiculousness persists year after year, is indeed tiring; especially when the bonds are paid for by the taxpayer every single year, whether or not anything actually gets produced.
Besides, you are arguing with mother nature - who has withheld her rain, for how many years in a row now? You are not going to win! Does it really take a holier than thou person to actually understand that? Or does it just take common sense.
At the other end of the spectrum for the farmer; the point was that it seems a bit of an appalling paradox, that while people at many locations are going without food (and anyone cognitive beyond their own nose, knows that is actually happening); that food should also be piling up on the ground and rotting at thousands of other locations all across the continent.
That this is caused by railroads failing to do the needed transportation while offering (fill in the excuse de-jur) as an excuse every single year, says that the railroads are not learning very much from their failures. Or simply don't much give a damn.
So if pointing that out and questioning whether they have actually earned and are entitled to their ever "adequate rate of return", makes one "holier than thou" in your eye; then so be it. If you can't stand for your pet toy railroads to be challenged, then get off the tracks.
I'm as much in favor of free enterprise as any one else. But not at the expense of the customers your enterprise failed, nor of the destruction of the bounty which could have built the economy as a whole. What about the customer's lost return on investment. Does the STB also guarantee their revenue adequacy. If not, then is the equal protection clause being violated? What about those at the bottom of the economy, that may go hungry just because food they could have had, was destroyed waiting for a train that showed up long after it had rotted- if at all.
The plain fact is, that corporations (and that includes railroads) were and are created only as tools to serve man. Yes, they need to receive sufficient revenue in return for producing their goods or services, to cover all the costs of providing them, including both operating and capital costs.
However, they must be made to actually EARN that adequate amount of revenue, by actually and satisfactorily producing and delivering those goods and services. In the case of railroads, they must EARN it by providing actual transportation as the real economy needs it. Not merely as it's convenient to themselves.
When they fail, they should get the same R.O.I. as when they succeed? Then why would they bother with the extra effort needed to successfully provide transportation. Answer, they wouldn't. And they obviously aren't.
Just as obvious, the current regulatory system is indeed broken, as it actually fosters and rewards railroad failure. The Staggers act went way too far, as did the destruction of railroad competition as allowed by the STB. Lack of competition also ultimately fosters failure to perform. And has already; the worst problems being experienced where the choice is just the one railroad, or nothing affordable at all. It has in many cases now, turned into a choice of failed transportation or nothing affordable at all - hence the food rots on the ground because the previous loads are still at the elevator waiting.
But certainly not from a water sucking cotton plant on a desert. Nor in the long run from wet farms in an unsuitable dry climate. That the plain arrogance of such ridiculousness persists year after year, is indeed tiring; especially when the bonds are paid for by the taxpayer every single year, whether or not anything actually gets produced.
Besides, you are arguing with mother nature - who has withheld her rain, for how many years in a row now? You are not going to win! Does it really take a holier than thou person to actually understand that? Or does it just take common sense.
At the other end of the spectrum for the farmer; the point was that it seems a bit of an appalling paradox, that while people at many locations are going without food (and anyone cognitive beyond their own nose, knows that is actually happening); that food should also be piling up on the ground and rotting at thousands of other locations all across the continent.
That this is caused by railroads failing to do the needed transportation while offering (fill in the excuse de-jur) as an excuse every single year, says that the railroads are not learning very much from their failures. Or simply don't much give a damn.
So if pointing that out and questioning whether they have actually earned and are entitled to their ever "adequate rate of return", makes one "holier than thou" in your eye; then so be it. If you can't stand for your pet toy railroads to be challenged, then get off the tracks.
I'm as much in favor of free enterprise as any one else. But not at the expense of the customers your enterprise failed, nor of the destruction of the bounty which could have built the economy as a whole. What about the customer's lost return on investment. Does the STB also guarantee their revenue adequacy. If not, then is the equal protection clause being violated? What about those at the bottom of the economy, that may go hungry just because food they could have had, was destroyed waiting for a train that showed up long after it had rotted- if at all.
The plain fact is, that corporations (and that includes railroads) were and are created only as tools to serve man. Yes, they need to receive sufficient revenue in return for producing their goods or services, to cover all the costs of providing them, including both operating and capital costs.
However, they must be made to actually EARN that adequate amount of revenue, by actually and satisfactorily producing and delivering those goods and services. In the case of railroads, they must EARN it by providing actual transportation as the real economy needs it. Not merely as it's convenient to themselves.
When they fail, they should get the same R.O.I. as when they succeed? Then why would they bother with the extra effort needed to successfully provide transportation. Answer, they wouldn't. And they obviously aren't.
Just as obvious, the current regulatory system is indeed broken, as it actually fosters and rewards railroad failure. The Staggers act went way too far, as did the destruction of railroad competition as allowed by the STB. Lack of competition also ultimately fosters failure to perform. And has already; the worst problems being experienced where the choice is just the one railroad, or nothing affordable at all. It has in many cases now, turned into a choice of failed transportation or nothing affordable at all - hence the food rots on the ground because the previous loads are still at the elevator waiting.
