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this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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ITT: "I like trains but this is bad because I can't admit that Biden is capable of doing anything good."
Cynicism is what's killing America. Faster than any politics. Look in the mirror and grow the fuck up.
I don't agree with him often, but damn we should have put in a rail system decades ago.
The best time was decades ago, the second best time is now!
Can't disagree with that!
I would bet actual cash money we will not see any high speed train outside of California in the next 10 years.
I was high on copium for a decade that Obama was gonna give me fiber internet and it never happened.
This isn't cynicism, this is just a giant novelty size pork barrel filled with rotting lard like the last several nationwide infrastructure projects were.
Well, he tried, but it turns out it's more profitable to just steal the money and hire some lawyers with part of it.
Well, you probably already lost that bet, because the LA->Vegas train is likely to be done before 2033 (even with some setbacks in the schedule). In fact, it'll probably be done before LA->San Fransisco. It follows an existing highway route, so there isn't much fight over land use. Most of the things that bog down these projects already seem to be cleared for it. Also helps that there isn't a lot in between LA and Vegas; you don't have every town over 10k people demanding they get a stop.
Ok you got me there. I forgot Nevada is part of this, and they're aiming for 2028 for the next Olympics.
That took my imagination for a high speed ride.
Seriously. I went lower to look and it's wild. So many people try to sound calm and unbiased but they're all just complaining that it's fake and nothing good will happen.
What about the the last decade (60 years really) has given you hope about our political system? Shit keeps getting worse for people on the bottom and better for the 1%.
For me, Acela.
Previously even in the highest population corner of the country, big cities that already have significant train systems, somehow we couldn’t get reasonably from one to the other.
Since it opened, I choose Acela over flying from Boston to NYC every time, and over Driving every time I’m going into the city (still might drive suburb to suburb). Acela runs reliably, not slower than driving/flying, and it’s easier/more comfortable. It works. We can build a working train system!
Problem is when you get outside of the Boston through DC corridor, population drops off a cliff. It starts to get too spread out.
But I'd settle for spreading two forks out toward Pittsburg and Richmond. Then keep getting the forks out further toward Chicago and Atlanta, with the big/growing cities along the way.
Most of the reasonable high speed rail proposals I’ve seen are to start in higher population areas where they make sense, build up feeders, extend as passenger traffic rises and eventually connect in places. Focusing on ideas like a new trans-continental railroad may be inspiring but just not practical. Who would ride where there are no cities or where flying or driving is faster and easier?
But the northeast proves it can work, and many of the allocations in this announcement are to upgrade standard rail to support more traffic as feeders, and I believe some could eventually lead to extensions southward
The usual regional centers proposed include:
Its also just like every time I see an american flag I'm like "oh this person hates americans".
Because it's the people's fault and a little attitude adjustment will fix everything
It sure will if not fix, at least improve your overall mood, and consequently your life
yeah it's kind of difficult to feel good about it when it's coming on the back of him / congress enabling literal genocide on the other side of the planet, thanks
I don't need a train. I need rent that isn't 60% of my take home, or, better yet, a house. What's that? NYT is saying that's never going to happen and that I should just be okay with it. Oh and the economy's doing great.
We should have both. The trains will do a lot for regular people, and so would bringing back capital gains taxes.
What did your want Biden to do about your rent?
Put capital gains tax on housing investments. Divert all cash from a pie in the sky train program for housing subsidies.
This "pie in the sky" train system is currently using like none of the federal budget. Find something else to cut money from.
Housing subsidies raise the overall cost, and the middle class still gets to pay the bill. It has its place for low incomes, but it's counterproductive when done too broadly. I'm definitely in favor of taxing investment real estate though.
Read the news. There’s a few things being tried, but one guy can’t unilaterally do everything, even if you’re president
Most of the things that would improve the housing market would be done at the city level. Getting hedge funds out of owning houses would be nice, but zoning and higher density are things done by your local city council.
I am surrounded by hundreds of empty units owned by a few multinational corporations subcontracting out their properties to the same management firm. They all use the same profit maximizing algorithm with a shared database. It's very illegal. I don't think a city could win a fight against a single billionaire, let alone a legion of them. I don't see my city even trying. Right now some tenants across the country are suing, which is an even more damned approach. This needs a federal stick.
I blame the aftermath of the New Atheist movement tbh.
Go around telling people there's no mysticism, it's all pointless, and misery is enlightenment and be shocked when everyone is sad.
You're talking about nihilism, not atheism. Atheism does not preclude humanism.
New Atheism is a fast track to Nihilism
I’m not sure y’all know what nihilism means. Assuming you are talking about Nietzsche’s nihilism, he described it as a series of transformational stages where a new understanding of self would necessarily emerge while the control structure of religion slowly crumbled away in modernity. He argued that this idea was so revolutionary that it would be news to atheists too.
There isn’t even a lot of despair or handwringing about it—he just points out that we need a new type of operating parameters to meet the modern world head on:
“…we are faced with a difficult, long term restoration project in which the most cherished aspects of our way of life must be ruthlessly investigated, dismantled, and then reconstructed in healthier form—all while we continue somehow to sail the ship of our common ethical life on the high seas.”
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/
I"m not, I'm talking about the Modern Reimagining where it's just being depressed all the time.
Even if you don't necessarily believe in a God, unless you're proud of cynicism without rationale (your typical teen), considering people have gotten this far, both collectively, and if you imagine your father or mother's life, you'd still believe in something good, even if it's just the power of money, or laughing at life's misery in general