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Re: Why don't Americans ride trains? - Really?
Author: BOB2
Date: 01-10-2015 - 18:14
No relation to Adam Smith, right?
No need for kettle versus pot!
You have some interesting arguments.....but. we actually do measure and model these danged cost of "externality" things all of the time. In many cases it really isn't that hard to identify and account for the explicit and/or implicit costs of many of these things.
And, there are countless behavioral and economics experiments which allow us to affix at least an approximate quantitative value to even many supposedly "subjective" attributes.
Just in case you missed it in Econ 101, externality problems come about when I put in my privy in next to your water well....it's about property rights, individual and/or common, and the impacts of costs we impose on others from our actions. It's not imaginary, it's a real thing that happens, and we often are able to actually observe it.
The misuse of economics, the use of denial, and guilt, and what I like to call the use of creative "new" math in the name of political correctness, to try to justify bull$#it is hardly a monopoly of any of the political fringes, these days.
A certain ignorant neo-luddite pseudo-scientific pseudo-environmental nimbyism on the left, and a certain almost "patriotic" pride in an ignorant anti-science anti-environment viewpoint on the right, seems to be in vogue right now, wherever you look in our political discourse. So we now have managed to present ourselves by and large with a clear political choice between dumb and dumber to address almost every important issue we face today, including issues affecting choo-choo's.
I, frankly, don't see much of a difference myself......but, I came from an era when we still had to do hard math, evaluate tough choices, and make decisions, in the fact based universe, where the consequences of being wrong mattered.
Nowadays, of course, we've largely repealed consequences, too.
And, ain't it just a shame when those pesky facts sometimes refuse to tell us just exactly what we want to hear, or fail to justify whatever convenient nonsense we've come to believe, or (more often) to confirm what we've been told by other fools, without really knowing ourselves?
Maybe, the truth lies somewhere in between, and your chances of hearing it, from a politician, regardless of stripe, are limited to slim and none?
And yes, our rail passenger services do suck for about 99% of all potential trip needs today, when compared to many nations these days, and our freeways now suck, too. So we really have nowhere to go but up, right?
No need for kettle versus pot!
You have some interesting arguments.....but. we actually do measure and model these danged cost of "externality" things all of the time. In many cases it really isn't that hard to identify and account for the explicit and/or implicit costs of many of these things.
And, there are countless behavioral and economics experiments which allow us to affix at least an approximate quantitative value to even many supposedly "subjective" attributes.
Just in case you missed it in Econ 101, externality problems come about when I put in my privy in next to your water well....it's about property rights, individual and/or common, and the impacts of costs we impose on others from our actions. It's not imaginary, it's a real thing that happens, and we often are able to actually observe it.
The misuse of economics, the use of denial, and guilt, and what I like to call the use of creative "new" math in the name of political correctness, to try to justify bull$#it is hardly a monopoly of any of the political fringes, these days.
A certain ignorant neo-luddite pseudo-scientific pseudo-environmental nimbyism on the left, and a certain almost "patriotic" pride in an ignorant anti-science anti-environment viewpoint on the right, seems to be in vogue right now, wherever you look in our political discourse. So we now have managed to present ourselves by and large with a clear political choice between dumb and dumber to address almost every important issue we face today, including issues affecting choo-choo's.
I, frankly, don't see much of a difference myself......but, I came from an era when we still had to do hard math, evaluate tough choices, and make decisions, in the fact based universe, where the consequences of being wrong mattered.
Nowadays, of course, we've largely repealed consequences, too.
And, ain't it just a shame when those pesky facts sometimes refuse to tell us just exactly what we want to hear, or fail to justify whatever convenient nonsense we've come to believe, or (more often) to confirm what we've been told by other fools, without really knowing ourselves?
Maybe, the truth lies somewhere in between, and your chances of hearing it, from a politician, regardless of stripe, are limited to slim and none?
And yes, our rail passenger services do suck for about 99% of all potential trip needs today, when compared to many nations these days, and our freeways now suck, too. So we really have nowhere to go but up, right?
