We are, quite probably, the stupidest people on the planet.

I knew my instincts in 1992 were right, why the hell did I ever come back here???

Though, I don’t think intercity rail makes much sense for anywhere west of the Mississippi, other than intrastate projects in Texas and California (but even that is stretching it I think).

http://i.treehugger.com/files/population-density-us.jpg

“Socialism” and railroads haven’t had that great a marriage actually, JNR ran up a Y27T debt before they became JR.

The economics of the railroad development of the US is really rather quite shocking, in a very bad way. We gave away tons of land to capitalize the railroad operations, but it was largely a massive giveaway of wealth over time that made a lot of people whole helluva lot of money, money that came from the productive farmers and others who were caught in all the real-life Monopoly game that was being played on them.

Here’s some ipad reading:

http://www.masongaffney.org/workpapers/The_US_Canal_Boom_and_Bust_1820-42_WP01.pdf

My hero, Henry George, in 1870:

“To these three Pacific roads alone have been given 150,000,000 acres in round numbers more than is contained in all Germany, Holland and Belgium, with their population of over fifty millions—more land than that of any single European state except Russia. The largest single grant—and it is a grant unparalleled in the history of the world—is that to the Northern Pacific, which aggregates 58,000,000 acres. And besides this these roads get 400 feet right of way (which in the case of the Northern Pacific amounts to 100,000 acres), what land they want for depots, stations, etc., and the privilege of taking material from Gov- ernment land, which means that they may cut all the timber they wish off Government sections reserving that on their own.”

http://www.grundskyld.dk/pdf/George/pe-Our-Land-and-Land-Policy.pdf

Warren Buffett recently bought the “Northern Pacific” which was part of Burlington Northern AT&SF.

The story of NP is an interesting saga of capitalism’s ups & downs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pacific_Railway

We are, quite probably, the stupidest people on the planet.

I knew my instincts in 1992 were right, why the hell did I ever come back here???

Though, I don’t think intercity rail makes much sense for anywhere west of the Mississippi, other than intrastate projects in Texas and California (but even that is stretching it I think).

http://i.treehugger.com/files/population-density-us.jpg

“Social-ism” and railroads haven’t had that great a marriage actually, JNR ran up a Y27T debt before they became JR.

The economics of the railroad development of the US is really rather quite shocking, in a very bad way. We gave away tons of land to capitalize the railroad operations, but it was largely a massive giveaway of wealth over time that made a lot of people whole helluva lot of money, money that came from the productive farmers and others who were caught in all the real-life Monopoly game that was being played on them.

Here’s some ipad reading:

http://www.masongaffney.org/workpapers/The_US_Canal_Boom_and_Bust_1820-42_WP01.pdf

My hero, Henry George, in 1870:

“To these three Pacific roads alone have been given 150,000,000 acres in round numbers more than is contained in all Germany, Holland and Belgium, with their population of over fifty millions—more land than that of any single European state except Russia. The largest single grant—and it is a grant unparalleled in the history of the world—is that to the Northern Pacific, which aggregates 58,000,000 acres. And besides this these roads get 400 feet right of way (which in the case of the Northern Pacific amounts to 100,000 acres), what land they want for depots, stations, etc., and the privilege of taking material from Gov- ernment land, which means that they may cut all the timber they wish off Government sections reserving that on their own.”

http://www.grundskyld.dk/pdf/George/pe-Our-Land-and-Land-Policy.pdf

Warren Buffett recently bought the “Northern Pacific” which was part of Burlington Northern AT&SF.

The story of NP is an interesting saga of capitalism’s ups & downs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pacific_Railway

Yeah, I was thinking about going into the land grab issue, but wanted to stay focused more on how railroads have more than just a little significance to the development to our country, how we are as steeped if not more steeped in rail history than most countries… despite the fact that automobiles in a sense derailed that. I wonder if the love affair with the car and our petulant refusal to switch to more efficient, less-polluting alternatives is somehow related to current right-wing scoffing of rail projects.

Actually, when writing the blog post, my mind flashed to a favorite movie line:

“Land, land… ‘Land: see Snatch.'” —Hedley Lamarr

“Republican leaders unveiled a list of proposed cuts in government spending Wednesday that would strike hardest at priorities of the Obama administration, such as high-speed rail, scientific innovation and a wide array of clean-energy programs.

“The list also includes deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal home-heating-assistance program and federal block grants that aid cities facing budget woes. And it envisions slicing nearly $760 million from the White House request for the WIC nutrition program that provides support to pregnant women and their children.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014178687_spending10.html

What’s odd is that I have no idea which economy is in less worse shape, Japan’s or the US’s. I think the Republican victory of 2010 is going to just utterly gut this country’s chances of avoiding a double-dip depression.

This is not the 1990s — there were different dynamics going on that produced the good times of the last half of the decade.

All that was good for us then is bad for us now — the Chinese trade deficit moving from $36B/yr to $360B/yr, $20 oil becoming $100+ oil, the baby boom saving surplus now drawing down the SSTF ~7 years before predictions, I could just go on & on.