High Speed Rail Job Creator
58
GOP Says No To Job Creation
The Republicans are again living up to their nick name, party of no, by trying to stifle the creation of high speed rails in the United States.
Before discussing why the GOP continues to deny America this job creating project, that will also give Americans an alternative mode of transportation, let’s look at China.
Did you know that China has been quite busy with job creation?
Did you know that as of May 2010 China has 3,529 high speed railways in operation, with 6,696 under construction?
China has also used technology from France, Germany and Japan to help produce their high-speed trains.
I am also willing to bet that China employs Chinese workers, using mostly Chinese made products to construct these high speed Chinese rail systems. Talk about job creation and stimulating the economy!
Jobs For China
Why hasn’t China used anything from the United States of America for their high speed rails?
Maybe the reason lies in the fact that America hasn’t kept up with technological advancement, in addition to the fact that we have either sold our businesses to countries abroad or outsourced such manufacturing jobs.
The UIC (International Union of Railways) and EC Directive 96/58 define high-speed rail as train systems operating at or above 250 km/h on new tracks, or 200 km/h on existing tracks.
But the USA decided to define a high-speed rail as a train system that operates at speeds above 110mph or 177 km/hr. Maybe this is another reason that explains why China didn’t ask us for help?
President Obama wants to advance our infrastructure, and one of his proposals is to creates high speed rail systems. Not only will this adventure create jobs, it will also offers Americans a choice, in addition to the airlines, regarding long distance travel.
Jobs For Americans
An easily accessable high speed rail service, implemented across the USA, could perhaps eliminate millions or even billions of miles of annual automobile driving. Let's not forget this could also create a cost effective alternative to the airlines.
- Across Europe, high speed rail service is commonly used which creates competition with the airlines. Maybe this explains why Europeans pay less for airline travel?
If properly implemented across the USA, Americans could see a savings of millions, if not billions of gallons of gasoline annually, and this in turn, would decrease our dependence on foreign oil. In addition to reducing traffic congestion in our larger cities, we would also lessen road maintenance and minimize air pollution in our major metropolitan areas.
So what’s the down side?
Politicians, especially those with a more conservative view, do not want federal involvement or federal funds to pay for construction of high speed rail services. Instead they want the private sector to initiate and build such infrastructure. That’s all well and good, but there’s a big problem with this idea.
A very small fraction of the American population has access to the massive funds that would be required to take on such a project. And more than likely, this handful of people are more interested in putting their money into stocks and hedge funds, and who would blame them? What would you prefer to do if you were extremely wealthy?
A) Sign the forms to invest your money and then sip a favorite beverage, possibly poolside while watching your money grow.
B) Manage the stress and headache of a start up high speed rail system business to be implemented across the United States of America.
If I had that kind of choice, good grief, I would pick option A, as most people would chose!
Who wouldn’t want to sit back, relax and watch their money grow? Most people do not care to be married to the extreme stress of a major start up business that will take over their life for the next twenty years or so.
Should America implement a high speed rail system?
What are your thoughts?
CommentsLoading...
NursePam: Feel like an alternative viewpoint ? If so, here goes.
Problem number one is this. When I give you this, you must ask yourself, and keep in mind that the President knows and understands this, yet he keeps proposing hyper-expensive projects. The United States currently has had to " Monetize " our debt. This is being done because we have run out of people ( other countries ) to purchase any of our debt. What this does is to " devalue " our dollar. The Federal Government under President Obama has managed to spend more in 2 short years than all the President's combined going back some 220 years. That is an indisputable fact. With that said our debt is now approaching our complete national output annually. While campaigning President Obama used George W's debt against the Republican party. That is fine, well and good, but in his first year, he doubled what W had run up. With that diatribe out of the way, let's talk trains.
AMTRAK loses billions a year. Where would you run the " Highspeed " from and too ? Miami to Boston ? The Northeast corridor is already so congested, where are you going to run the tracks ? What do you do with Amtrak ? Ontop of that, what about EAST-WEST ? It would still take days to get from Miami to San Francisco. And that is if it doesn't stop to pick up any passengers along the way.
The same holds true for Southern California to Northern California or Seattle. What do you do with Amtrak ?
America also has to be willing to give up it's freedom of the automobile. But that aside Nurse, the fact is we are bankrupt ! Our dollar is devaluing at an alarming rate and their is nobody to purchase anymore bonds from us.
As a side note. Over 100 global scientist have come out and admitted that Global Warming is a major hoax. It was all started by a fellow by the name of Maurice Strong from Canada to create a new form of currency that he would control. He gave part of the interest in all this to Al Gore to push it. He stands to earn hundreds of billions if he can pull this off. True story, the video's of Maurice are on YOUTUBE, you can watch him explain it in his own words. The currency by the way is that of " carbon credit " sales. He would earn commission on credit's sold or purchased on a world wide basis...True story, watch it for yourself.
The fact also is that we have enough oil in North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Alaska, Texas, California to run America for literally thousands of years. And we have not even gone to LA, the Gulf, Oklahoma or any of the other states yet. You get the idea.
Nurse: In closing, we are broke, bottom line is we are broke and broken. We cannot afford anymore at this time. For all those jobs you create building this rail system, are you going to employ the airline employees that lose their jobs?
Just my thoughts, but I just do not see how it can work. I really do not, nor does most people. Even those that were charged with trying to figure it out cannot work it out. Best wishes and keep on hubbing....Ken
Great Hub. The Republicans are completely narrow minded and they will pay in 2012. The only money they will open up to is the tax breaks for the corporations. They are the benfactors of the Republicans. i just wish that the first stimulus bill had money strictly for growth projects such as high speed rail. I hope the Democrats grow and keep their backbones over these issues.
The American people have been confused by Big Business and Wall Street disguised as the Republican Party, Tea party, Conservative Ideas,and Fox News. As the results of their vote in the Mid-term elections,many realizes that it wasn't about parties,it was about money. Democrat and republicans has let the fox in the hen house, and the fox eats liberials and conservatives. It too bad they can't unvote all of the republican governors. Wisconsin is only the begining of the regret. The High Speed Rail regret will begin when oil is cut off or is too costly for the millions of the great american. good hub.
nursepam Hub Author 15 months ago
Ken Crow: Thanks for your thoughts! First I'd like to point out that I do agree with a few of your points, we are broke, there is no way around that. But let's examine why we are broke.
You seem to blame President Obama for our failing economy. We have to remember that Obama walked into a failing economy, the result of GW Bush overspending, getting us into two wars and not paying for these wars. Instead he gave tax breaks which compounded our current problems. Bush was handed a relatively thriving economy that nearly collapsed by the time he left.
Of the many reasons for our financial difficulties (I believe) is our defense budget. It has been said that we could cut our budget in half, and we would still outspend the world. That’s ridiculous!
Why is it necessary to maintain a USA military presence around the world? It's not only arrogant and rudely intrusive, it's also outrageously expensive.
If we closed our military bases in Asia, Europe, Australia, etc. the savings would be in excess of $500 billion annually.
Next why do we subsidize wealthy corporations? Eliminating corporate welfare could also result in substantial savings.
Finally high speed rail systems. You really can’t compare Amtrak, which is slow and inconvenient because it’s extremely antiquated, compared to high speed rails. Why would someone purchase an Amtrak ticket, which costs much more that driving your car, and gets you there in the same amount of time as driving a car? This explains why Amtrak is losing money, it's outdated.
I believe that we need to reign in our obscene spending abroad and start concentrating on our own needs. This will create American jobs, while paying down our debt. Our infrastructure is slowly eroding and becoming out dated. If we continue to ignore our needs, this will only serve to erode our future.
Finally it would be nice if Americans had a choice of quick, long distance transportation, as the rest of the world has been granted. High speed rails offer competition to the airlines.