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count the misunderstanding and outdated info bit...
Author: huh?
Date: 03-25-2024 - 19:04
Spain is one country about the size of California from San Diego to about Willits or Chico south to north (Gibraltar to the French border). Its population is not spread out in urban centers the way California's is; the cities are somewhat more compact and more concentrated in the middle of the country and the east/south. It's part of the EU, where things are generally close together and there's a tradition of rail use. The Spanish rail budget is around what Biden wants to spend on the whole US, and is focused on "one true HS line" according to the story (which isn't quite true - Spain has a HS network integrated with its regular train network, not Just One Line - really, they did it more or less like Bob2 would like to see it done). Um ... different strokes?
Some of the numbers are way out of date. How old is this story, really? Did they resurrect it on 3/22/24 from some archive?
You could argue, of course, that the California state-only economy is far bigger than Spain's, which is true depending on how you define GDP (California's "GDP" is nearly $4 trillion), making it the 5th largest in the world). So California should have the money to do HSR all by itself. Which it might, if it did not choose to spend it on other things, like the large number of people that live here (not really on taxes, despite being one of the highest-taxed states - the US in general, including the states, is not a high-tax country - how many of us, really, pay more than 50% of our income in taxes, not including VAT or sales, which is a pretty common number in Europe?).
The truly crazy high price of building big public works projects in the US (unlike in Spain) of course contributes to the lack of progress. Politics makes a not-insignificant contribution, too. So yes, there are choices that can be made to improve HSR. But I don't see it happening any time soon, failure of Boeing or otherwise.
BTW, note that a bunch of the McD-D refugees that have been running Boeing into the ground, including the CEO, are being forced out. There is, perhaps, some hope that the company might be salvaged, which would be good news for the Keep Burning The Fossil Fuels crowd.
Some of the numbers are way out of date. How old is this story, really? Did they resurrect it on 3/22/24 from some archive?
You could argue, of course, that the California state-only economy is far bigger than Spain's, which is true depending on how you define GDP (California's "GDP" is nearly $4 trillion), making it the 5th largest in the world). So California should have the money to do HSR all by itself. Which it might, if it did not choose to spend it on other things, like the large number of people that live here (not really on taxes, despite being one of the highest-taxed states - the US in general, including the states, is not a high-tax country - how many of us, really, pay more than 50% of our income in taxes, not including VAT or sales, which is a pretty common number in Europe?).
The truly crazy high price of building big public works projects in the US (unlike in Spain) of course contributes to the lack of progress. Politics makes a not-insignificant contribution, too. So yes, there are choices that can be made to improve HSR. But I don't see it happening any time soon, failure of Boeing or otherwise.
BTW, note that a bunch of the McD-D refugees that have been running Boeing into the ground, including the CEO, are being forced out. There is, perhaps, some hope that the company might be salvaged, which would be good news for the Keep Burning The Fossil Fuels crowd.
