As you probably know, if for any reason you’re ever interested in destroying large sums of money, just get a government involved. City, state, or federal, it doesn’t matter. The simple fact is that these power-hungry organizations are populated by people who couldn’t hack it in the world of private enterprise, so they have found solace in union-protected, high-paying government jobs where it’s impossible to be fired and there’s zero accountability. Just show up now and then, and the direct deposits will flow.
With that as a basis, I was not the least bit surprised to see this headline in the morning paper:
I’ve written about the High Speed Rail (HSR) project many times before, but in case you’re unacquainted with it, there’s not much to understand: back in 2008, the taxpayers of California were asked to approve a $10 billion bond measure to help pay for a train that would travel at 220 miles per hour between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
It would be much more convenient than dealing with air travel, and I’m sure folks in Northern California thought it would be pretty cool to just impulsively decide on any given Saturday morning to pop down to Disneyland with the kids and make a day of it. Sure, it would take a few years to finish the project, but they were excited at the pretty pictures the HSR people provided to let everyone know how spiffy the trains would be:
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Well, there have been a few minor bumps along the way. Since 2008, which was nearly 15 years ago………
- The project has gone up in price by hundreds of percent (almost 0.1 trillion dollars, actually)
- It has been “cancelled” at least once, but somehow magically never dies;
- They have totally back-pedaled away from the idea of trains flying around at 220 miles per hour. The HSR confesses that the train will run pretty much at regular speed, although in some portions it might get up to 100 miles per hour.
- Even though it was supposed to have been finished a decade ago, the amount of the project completed is 0.00%
Here is the map illustrating the oh-so-awesome rail system, none of which has materialized:
So let’s be really clear………..the projected cost (which is quite clearly meaningless at this point, as history as demonstrated repeatedly) is over a tenth of a TRILLION dollars. If this goddamned thing ever is finished, what do you think the cost might be? A quarter of a trillion, maybe? And finished in the year 2040?
And I am not being facetious about the lack of progress. The news item below just came out. It couldn’t be plainer: No track has been laid. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
My guess is that at some point, probably $150 billion into this debacle, they’ll just give up and hope people forget about it swiftly. All they’ll be left with is pretty drawings of artist’s concepts, like the one below. Finishing the HSR is never going to happen, and merely proves once again that if you put a bond issue on the ballet, people will vote for it, because the dummies think it’s somehow free money and doesn’t matter since there’s no tax increase mentioned. Congrats, California!
