Heavily tax people for every mile they drive and it will deter them from driving as much. They will be forced to use public transportation. Maybe this is the reason somebody in his administration had talked about taxing people that drive.

If a light rail across our nation was likely to be profitable, I would think that entrepreneurs would have gotten the ball rolling a long time ago.

Obama wants to build a nationwide light rail system, does he?

Where, exactly, is he crapping out all this money from?
I know for a fact the White House garden does not grow money trees.
Don't you think that Team Obama should check with China first?
Oh, wait, perhaps he should check with those 95% of American people who are allegedly not going to have their taxes increased 1 cent!

Someone needs to seriously jack-slap the wannabe king back into reality.

[edit on 16-4-2009 by Seekerof]

I think it is a good long term goal, but obviously economically it would be hard for a while But I think in the long run we would save money on gas, we wouldn't have car troubles, and plane tickets cost more then this system would, so all in all it would save us Americans money which is what we all want.

Somehow I bet if you did the math, it would be cheaper to buy all the airlines at their fair market value today and let everyone fly for free and give them all bus passes than it would be to build a nationwide light rail system.

Green my a$$... by using "green" it has already started out deceitfully.

This is a good way to tighten control of our movement, easy for them to watch you this way.

I would say this is the same or worse than the NAFTA Super Highway, this too will go through the heart of the U.S. It could be used for cheap Far East goods as well..... On top of that they'll use it like the airlines, treat you like terrorist ect.... and 100x efficient and faster...


The high-speed rail corridors


NAFTA Super Highway


[edit on 16-4-2009 by imitator]

I look at it this way, if the greedy idiotic banks we have in this country continue not to give loans for car and truck purchases what in the heck are we gona do? If you don't have transportation to work your screwed! A new lightrail system is being built here in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area of Virginia and it is keeping about 5 Road Construction Companies and my other half (he has a small business servicing 2 companies heavy equipment) working and bringing home a pay check! I think it will be great for people going to work, shopping, the beach, and attrack tourists which has fallen in this area and others around the country. And hey! If you want to go out and party across town or just down the street, you have transportation after having beers or cocktails I am all for it!!!!!!

Originally posted by cautiouslypessimistic

It's interesting, the people that talk about stopping spending and the such are the ones that generally accuse people of not understandig economics...I know I fell into that trap, but come on, money HAS to be spent. You can either spend it in handouts, or you can spend it on infrastucture....which is the ONLY proven way to turn an economy around.

Actually I am for a rail system and improving the infrastructure, but the way this economy will be turned around will be with the lives and blood of the youth of America in another WAR. It worked in the past and it will work again. Break out the Flags, the bunting and the March music. Mark my words!! This is the pattern America uses; create an enemy and fire up the military industrial complex and let the money roll in.

[edit on 16-4-2009 by whaaa]

I think that it's kinda silly to say that we, the US, should build a rail system simply because they use them in Europe. I'll admit, I love riding in the trains over here but it makes more sense over here for several reasons.

1)The countries are smaller--maintaing the rail infrastructure isn't as difficult.

2)The individual countries are more compact--I can travel from northern Germany to Budapest Hungary relatively quickly on a train if I ride the right one. [The ride by car from Düsseldorf, Germany to Budapest, Hungary by car is nine hours, traveling at 90mph--that's the amount of time it takes to get from south Florida to Florida's westernmost tip!]

3)Owning a car is downright expensive here in Europe.

I've always thought that sheer size of America is one reason trains died out--I know I wouldn't want to be on a train for a week just to get to California! Even with the improvement in technology, I think that people would only use trains in the US if that train was going faster than the speed of sound [maybe an exaggeration] so that you're not wasting days of your life. Why take a train if you can fly there in a fraction of the time?

If a rail system is started again in America, I just hope that it's not government run. There is one train line here in Germany--Deutsche Bahn--and it's run by the government. It's well known that they manipulate the prices in ridiculous ways--a ticket can be 10€ one day and over 50€ the next, for no real reason. Since there is no competition, the customer service is garbage to--no need to be nice when your the only dog in town.

Originally posted by octotom

If a rail system is started again in America, I just hope that it's not government run. There is one train line here in Germany--Deutsche Bahn--and it's run by the government. It's well known that they manipulate the prices in ridiculous ways--a ticket can be 10€ one day and over 50€ the next, for no real reason. Since there is no competition, the customer service is garbage to--no need to be nice when your the only dog in town.

Amen to that. That is exactly what would happen if the government ran the train system. There would be one guy with an attitude problem taking your ticket while 8 guys stood next to him talking about who cut the biggest fart yesterday. All the while the ticket price would jump 50% per year or they would just let it loose money by the billions every year and say they have no idea how to make it break even. On top of that all those workers would get some ungodly pension plan and healthcare that no private company could afford to offer and they would be paid like 50k a year to do an $8/hr job.

[edit on 16-4-2009 by justsomeboreddude]

Originally posted by whaaa

Originally posted by cautiouslypessimistic

It's interesting, the people that talk about stopping spending and the such are the ones that generally accuse people of not understandig economics...I know I fell into that trap, but come on, money HAS to be spent. You can either spend it in handouts, or you can spend it on infrastucture....which is the ONLY proven way to turn an economy around.

Actually I am for a rail system and improving the infrastructure, but the way this economy will be turned around will be with the lives and blood of the youth of America in another WAR. It worked in the past and it will work again. Break out the Flags, the bunting and the March music. Mark my words!! This is the pattern America uses; create an enemy and fire up the military industrial complex and let the money roll in.

[edit on 16-4-2009 by whaaa]

You have a great point there.....it;s not just america however....and does anyone realize that NO land gains are made after modern wars? NONE. ZIP. ZERO. There is no other reason for them but money.

Originally posted by cautiouslypessimistic

You do know what a mix of coporate and political control is right?

I am not one who EVER thinks putting money and power in the hands of the corporations is a good thing. Trickle down DOESNT WORK. The only way an economy grows is by the people, not by the government, not by the corporations.

I agree you can shrink gov't, but I dont see what that has to do with this topic. I mean, I am "technically" a government employee, because I work in a school with special ed kids. Should spending on me be CUT?

A mix of political control, corporate control, and personal responsibility is necessary.

Its not putting money in the hands of corporations, its just not taking their hard earned money away from them. You know that money that they risked capital to make. That money that they reinvest in equipment or pay their shareholders or create more jobs with.

I dont mean any insult but we need to look at all government jobs and make the hard decisions on what needs to be cut in order for us to balance the budget and begin to pay off our national debt. Some people are going to loose out but its for the long term good of the country and ALL of its citizens.

Originally posted by justsomeboreddude
Obama wants to build a nationwide light rail system

With whose money????? Oh that's right ... MINE!

He's already something like 3 trillion in debt so I guess he figures he can spend a few billion more and it won't matter.

We will all be slaves to the state.

Gawd .. wake me up from this nightmare.