This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Dead Nation Walking
Submitted by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
Many people seem to think that America has lost its sense of purpose. They overlook the obvious: that we are striving to become the Bulgaria of the western hemisphere. At least we already have enough vampires to qualify.
You don’t have to seek further than the USA’s sub-soviet-quality passenger railroad system, which produced the spectacular Philadelphia derailment last week that killed eight people and injured dozens more. Six days later, we’re still waiting for some explanation as to why the train was going 100 miles-per-hour on a historically dangerous curve within the city limits.
The otherwise excellent David Stockman posted a misguided blog last week that contained all the boilerplate arguments denouncing passenger rail: that it’s addicted to government subsidies and that a “free market” would put it out of its misery because Americans prefer to drive and fly from one place to another.
One reason Americans prefer to drive — say, from Albany, NY, to Boston — is that there is only one train a day, it never leaves on time or arrives on time, and it takes twice as long as a car trip for no reason that makes any sense. Of course, this is exactly the kind of journey ( slightly less than 200 miles) that doesn’t make sense to fly, either, given all the dreary business of getting to-and-from the airports, not to mention the expense of a short-hop plane ticket.
I take the popular (and gorgeous!) Hudson River Amtrak train between Albany and New York several times a year because bringing a car into Manhattan is an enormous pain in the ass. This train may have the highest ridership in the country, but it’s still a Third World experience. The heat or the AC is often out of whack, you can’t buy so much as a bottle of water on the train, the windows are gunked-over, and the seats are often broken. They put wifi on trains a couple of years ago but it cuts out every ten minutes.
Anyway, even if Americans seem to prefer for the present moment to drive or fly, it may not always be the case that they will be able to. Several surprising forces are gathering to take down the Happy Motoring matrix. Peak oil is actually not playing out in the form of too-high gasoline prices, but rather a race between a bankrupt middle class unable to pay the total costs of motoring and an oil industry that can’t make a profit drilling for hard-to-get oil. That scenario is plain to see in the rapid rise and now fall of shale oil.
Nowhere on earth is there passenger rail that pays for itself. But, of course, you don’t hear anyone complain about the public subsidies for driving or air travel. Who do you think pays for the interstate highway system? What major airport is privately owned and operated?
Some of the decisions made over our rail system are so dumb you wonder how the executives on board ever got their jobs. For instance the train between New York City and Chicago never runs on time for the simple reason that Amtrak sold the right-of-way to the CSX freight line. CSX then tore up the second track because there was an antiquated state real estate tax on railroad tracks. As a result, freight trains have priority on the single track and the passenger trains have to pull over on sidings every time a freight needs to go by. Earth calling the New York state legislature. Rescind the stupid tax.
America is going to need trains more than it thinks right now, despite what the “free market” says. The condition of our trains is symptomatic of the shape of the nation. The really sad part is we missed the window of opportunity to build a high-speed system. Capital will soon be too scarce for that. But we still have a conventional network that not so many decades ago was the envy of the world, and we know exactly how to fix it. We just don’t want to. No will left. Apparently we’d rather just turn into the walking dead.
- 19249 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


< Planned controlled demolition
< Greed and stupity
2+ years ago this story would have never made the cut on ZH... Is this symptomatic?
Its the evolution of the ongoing happening. Everyone that is here knows whats coming. We just need something to read now until new events unfold.
Shovel Ready ... remember that?
Writing for the Washington Post, writer Manuel Roig-Franzia sardonically suggested that the phrase did not exist and had never before been used until President Barack Obama used it during an interview with Meet the Press on 6 December 2008.[1][2] Obama used the phrase to describe infrastructure projects that were ready to immediately receive stimulus funding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovel_ready
The government paying for the interstate hwy system killed rail travel in the US more than anything else. The govt pays for a huge project in the highway system and ends up paying for two for eternity.
Why ride on a train when I can freely smoke cigs and drink beer (when some else is driving) in the confort of a car with WiFi that works?
< the problem was " USA’s sub-soviet-quality passenger railroad system"
< the problem was an inattentive engineer who tried to take a 50 mph curve at 100 mph and now "can't remember" anything.
good enough for government work ...
If only people understood The True Nature of Government.
damn near lost a 400 dollar cart....
Have no fear, the default is near, then it's game on.
"Nowhere on earth is there passenger rail that pays for itself. But, of course, you don’t hear anyone complain about the public subsidies for driving or air travel..."
I am officially complaining about all subsidies.
Is the author a statist or what?
Nice Blazing Saddles reference!
I don't get how a guy going around a dangerous corner at 100 miles an hour means the amtrak infrastructure is failing. Some unfireable public union operator was doing his usual "they will never fire me cuz they aren't allowed" dickless incompetent best and killed some people. That seems to be the problem. And why the fuck is the government in the passenger rail business to begin with? That shit should have been sold decades ago, but, oh, wait, no one is going to buy a shitty rail business that loses money every year. Kinda like how no one is going to pay 50k for a shitty truck(GM), so, the government steps in there, too.
Maybe it was stuxnet. The train was doing 100 but the read out only said 40.
Maybe it was something far less exotic. Youts throwing rocks.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/18/us/philadelphia-amtrak-train-derailment/
The problem was the stunex virus , the engineer new he was going faster then 50 but the guages said 50 and he could not slow it down , looks lke it came back and bit us in the ass.
"Why ride on a train when I can freely smoke cigs and drink beer"
Ridin that train
High on cocaine
Casey Jones you'd better watch your speed
Oh Wait!
< America needs an Industrial Revolution YESTERDAY....
< What difference does it make?
Back in the 90's, when I was in college, amtrak was the model of how NOT to run a business. This has always been true of amtrak.
Americans rode trains when they were the only option. Americans don't like trains; and with good reason. I rode amtrak once. It was as bad as a bus. Awful.
That was eight years ago, when President Frankie Davis Jr. was still pretending that his massive deficits would be used for infrastructure. He doesn't even bother with that yarn anymore.
With each and every word, Kunstler further proves he's a cluesless idiot. Why any of the Tyler's would post this critique of Stockman's excellent work is beyond me.
Let me remind everyone, this fool voted for Obummer, TWICE!
kunsler is 1/2 right. his utopia needs a reduction of 6 billion people. howard, patience we are heading there fast, then your made by hand world and organic farms will work to feed about a billion. right now you are 1/2 correct about the problems but fail the reality test of how we got here and the reality of overpopulation. mother nature is on your side. oh don't forget to vote for hitlery.
Two guesses.
Yes, and Hell Yes.
They lost most of their financially oriented readership after they lost 60% of their capital in the gold and silver crash. Now it's more of a tabloid full of clickbait. A slightly better Drudge Report (with much the same readership, having been pimped on various right wing talk radio shows over the past few years).
My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can't believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do... www.jobs-review.com
meh, id rather just whore myself out to 150 fat chicks for a hundred each. Or, 15 REALLY fat chicks for 1000 each.
Fuck your sister. You aren't worth a fuckoff.
the last time the USA had a first class rail system was about a hundred years ago. Right before the central bank American asset-stripping program really got up and running. Of course the railroads were the first assets to be targeted with that program as being the most obvious greatest asset...
Can anyone provide info on who owns the railroads?
What major airport is privately owned and operated?
-Aena. hottest investment of 2015.
Welcome to America, showing the way to even more dysfunction in the future.....
Trains and "infrastructure" aren't why we're falling apart. We're being wage-arbitraged on a global playing field while our own banks and Federal Reserve debase the currency on which we operate while suppressing interest rates WAY below their natural level causing serial asset bubbles and punishing the REAL engine of growth and prosperity: SAVINGS (deferred consumption, in any of its myriad forms).
END. OF. FUCKING. STORY.
Proof? Who here would give a flying shit about the condition of our rail system if you could find a stable job at a good living wage? None of us. Have we EVER had a world-class rail system? Not since over a century ago, by my recollection. If we poofed a complete high speed, high tech rail system into existance tomorrow, would you have a better job by next year? No.
Kunstler used the word SYMPTOMATIC for a reason. Because it ain't the problem.
I feel so left out. I've never even had a failed rail system, let alone a successful one.
true....1 time i rode a marc train to camden yards....just coming back from nassau....instead of taking that disgusting train back home...i negociated a fare with a a cabby instead...i will never ever get on any train system again...
You do realize one of the reasons the china man and russia along with india are moving ahead is because they make sensible investments to their infrastructure
Having spent one Christmas day in the luggage rack of a third world
train,to avoid the free range livestock, you are talking from your arse Kuntsler.
Which free range livestock- the untermenschen or the chicken and goats?
That one work used to work both ways in a lot of 3rd world trains, planes and automobiles.
All of the above.
All of the above.
No mystery.
The engineer was doing drugs, texting, had a dildo up his ass...,
or all the above.
Sometimes it is just operator error.
"Humans are imperfect. Robots are the only way. I'm so sorry Dave.... Dave?"
I can assure you now confidenty it is going to all right.
My last trip on Amtrak was Washington DC to Baltimore, MD. About 45 miles. Took 75 minutes. Next time, I walk. Faster and cheaper.
"The condition of our trains is symptomatic of the shape of the nation."
You hysteric, liberal idealogue, mentally retarded amoeba, dumb sh.t!
How do you explain that train entering that curve at 100 mph!!
It was the train driver who dit it!!
It had nothing to do with the condition of the trains!!
Get your head out of your ass hole!!
It is possible that Mr. Digital f*ucked up. That does happen you know. Like cars suddenly accellerating, and so on. These trains are monitored by Mr. Digital as well. If it was going 100 mph into dead mans curve someone else monitoring should have seen it. So why is no one asking this?
You have little experience I believe with the actual conditions of the railroad tracks up and down the east coast.
Most are in deplorable conditions, Many places trains have to slow to 15 mph.
Regardless of the cause of the recent derailment, the condition of the tracks is really bad.
Why don't ya'll live in the East Hamptons? SIMPLES! Anyway in a few years we'll all travel by Drone. Well those of us not incarcerated on the Plantation.
one thing is for sure it wasn't some suicidal homicial homosexual that caused the accident.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/germanwings-killer-andreas-lubit...
This article is the equivalent of a high altitude face plant.
Epic fail.
That's apparently all Kunstler knows.
Perhaps in a few more years he'll finally recognize that his own desire to control the world via collectivist systems is the problem, and not the solution? I wouldn't bet on it though, as anyone willing to write this much stupid shit day after day is obviously fully invested in the fraud d.b.a. "the state."
We off railroaded some folks...
Hey as long as the Banksters bonuses remain high and growing, who cares that the nation has turned to shit?
Our sense of purpose is centrally planned. Mayhaps that is the problem.
Several surprising forces are gathering to take down the Happy Motoring matrix.
Nothing pisses off progtards more than private ownership of firearms and the automobile.
Freedom is not something they want you to have. You might do something they don't like.
I took a cheap airplane with ryanair to barcelona for 70 euro’s this weekend for a citytrip...
the cracking of the plane on touhdown scared the living bejezus out of me. Next time I’ll pay that extra 20 euro’s for a planeride on a plane that isn’t 40 years old.
Our travel infrastructure is killing itself with cheap rides and every travelling site will always show you the cheapest first.
In the end, the price is cheap but the cost will be high.
It’s like those people who buy those cheap 2 dollar chinese watches and complain there’s no real gold trims on it.
Quality? We threw it out with moral, ambition and proud.
For 20 euros more you get to use the toilet and feel up the flight attendant for free, but the plane is just as old.
FYI, American air carriers have some of the oldest planes in their fleets. And the worst maintenance. Some aren't even allowed to land here because of Stage 3 conditions unless they have Stage 3 hushkits .
Those who remember the Reagan Administration's deregulation of air travel can appreciate its effects - People Express and other cut-fare competitors pushed the established airlines to the brink of bankruptcy, and into the business model of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection every 5 years, so pension obligations could be offloaded to the US government, trade creditors stiffed, labor contracts torn up, and common shareholders extinguished.
PanAm, TWA, and Branif disappeared in bankruptcy. Passenger service levels tanked, but while onboard service, drinks and meals disappeared, additional charges for luggage etc increased. Older planes returned from 3rd-world countries to which they had been retired, and pressed back into service in the USA. Airlines are engaged in a continuing race to the bottom of costs and service levels, trying to make profits.
Another triumph for liberated Free Enterprise! (screw the public and customers)
FYI, American air carriers have some of the oldest planes in their fleets. And the worst maintenance. Some aren't even allowed to land here because of Stage 3 conditions unless they have Stage 3 hushkits .
I'm sure there isn't a single passenger train in America that is as substandard and uncomfortable as some of the sleeper trains still operating in Eastern Europe, to include Poland. Air conditioning? Europeans have no idea what that is. Even in 2015. Even as elderly people die by the thousands every summer due to heat exposure.
yes Eastern Europe is a lot like the USA. but NOT Western Europe. And we do NOT need airconditioning here. But most cars have it now., and so do the hi speed trains.
Try blowing your smoke up someone elses ass, THICK boy . Good name for you, very THICK (dumb).
Dutch boy I get the feeling you have your finger in the Eurozone dam and if you pull it out the whole corrupt evil Eurozone collapses . But you love being a slave on your knees just like most of the Dutch loved their Nazi masters. You pathetic Euro trash pukes allow the Eurozone to ensalve you . I am an American who loves his country but hates the government. We Americans won't go down without a fight when the evil ones come for us. It may look like we are too passive but not enough pressure has been applied to us yet. You repugnant Europeans think your so damn better then us Americans. I actually feel sorry for you Euro fools. How's that muslim immigration working out for y'all ? I sure hope we Americans don't have to come save y'all's ass a third time when the Eurozone cause another war there.
Listen up you little punk ass coward. if not for RUSSIA we all would be speaking German. You don't know much about real history, especially WW2.
Fact is, clowns like YOU are 'legends in your own minds''. BTW, I am a Vietnam Vet and lived in the USA for 35 years before moving back to the old country., I tripled my income the day I left and never took unemployment. Its a pleasure to be around intelligent people now , I spent a lot of years being around fucktards like you in the USA.
You are true cowards and will NEVER take your country back. EVER. Its a rotting shithole because you military types enjoy thinking your are hot shit destroying other peoples countries. KARMA is nailing your asses now and I have ZERO pity for you.
You reap what you sow.
Oh, BTW, BOY!!!!! I was at the pool today, Nothing but blue eyed blond haired screaming kids having fun. Didn't see any MUSLIMS. Then I went to the mall , it was packed with shoppers. AGAIN, didn't see any Muslims.
You keep believing FOXCNNABCCBSNBC and have them pickle your brain with lies.
BTW, Canadians liberated this country and we have a parade for them every year. Americans not welcome because you like to rub our faces , that you are the GREATEST.
Like my 94 year old aunt who remembers the war here at ''A Bridge too Far''. She says'' its too bad Americans have become like the Nazis we fought, they used to be nice people''.
Hey Dutch fag, do you or do you not want the Eurozone to collapse . Your answer wil tell me all I need to know about you, although I think I already know your answer .
You know the answer? I doubt it seeing as you only have one brain cell.
I want to go back to true sovereignty and the Dutch Guilder and The German Mark and fuck Brussels .
I love to see the EU collapse.
There you go , kid, there is your answer.
Would you be a Nijmegen resident, then??
Spent a memorable year in Holland, 6 months in the Groningen University Hospital complex. Really nice people, really nice Country, really great transport / infrastructure / sensible planning. Amazing food too :-)
Very impressed with the quality and punctuality of Nederlandse Spoorwegen services - always on time, always clean and well-maintained (NO graffiti anywhere), and a very reasonable ticket price. Weekend timetables? no such thing - same timetable for ALL services, 7 days a week, so people DO use the service, and very heavily too. Spent 2 months with friends in Utrecht, and we used to have Sunday lunch at the Utrecht Central Station restaurant, which was pretty packed. Something to do with the excellent food, and excellent view over the Station Concourse (along with close proximity to the massive shopping complex . . . .).
Haven't been back for 20+++ years. I'm sure there have been many changes, and we will have to revisit some time.
"Nothing but blue eyed blond haired screaming kids having fun. "
I'm genuinely thrilled to hear that. But I take it you don't live in Rotterdam where the blonde kids would be screaming with fear instead as they fled Muslim paedophiles.
"Bostian, 32, who suffered a concussion, told investigators he has no memory of what occurred after the train pulled out of the North Philadelphia station, just before the crash."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/18/us-usa-train-derailment-lawsui...
He heard of the crash on the news, like obama, and the rest of us.
A speeding train, out of control, derails and wipes out a bunch of people.
How foreboding.
Was that you yellen??
Public transportation is for losers. Much better to cruise along in the comfort of your luxury automobile at 100+ miles per hour on the autobahn.
100mph on the autobahn here is quite slow. Many do 130 plus.
I am frightened driving on USA interstates where people hog the left lane at 55 mph while putting on makeup or reading the paper. They don't seem to know what a rear view mirror is for. They would be DEAD MEAT on the autobahn,
You mean the people who can afford fast cars and the gas to fuel them drive those speeds. Sadly, most Europeans are extremely poor and their Puntos just won't go that fast. Luckily, the bottom 40% or so of incomes and all the refugees can't afford cars at all so the roads are pretty empty given the insane population densities of Europe.
hahah you are so full of crap. even the lower middle class drives BMW and Mercs.
Get a clue, and BTW the autobahns here are packed almost to gridlock everyday around the cities
You have never been to Europe.
another shit for brains LIAR.
Piss off, clownboy,. YOU KNOW NOTHING>
hahah you are so full of crap. even the lower middle class drives BMW and Mercs.
Get a clue, and BTW the autobahns here are packed almost to gridlock everyday around the cities
You have never been to Europe.
another shit for brains LIAR.
Piss off, clownboy,. YOU KNOW NOTHING>
Hey dopey, I tripled my income the day I left the USA in 1989 and people are NOT poor here,. They are poor in the USA> I have seen the rustbuckets on the road in the USA., They woould be in the crusher here long ago.
Why do you insist on pushing bullshit here about Europe. Again, you don't know a goddam thing about Europe.
100mph on the autobahn here is quite slow. Many do 130 plus.
I am frightened driving on USA interstates where people hog the left lane at 55 mph while putting on makeup or reading the paper. They don't seem to know what a rear view mirror is for. They would be DEAD MEAT on the autobahn,
Loser is YOU, plus you are a LIAR to boot.
Obviously the network is crying out for Reardon metal.
the US Postal System is equally up to the challenge as reflecting the current state of America
Dead Nation walking ...
.. all that is left to do is go through its pockets and look for loose change ...
And that seems to be the sentiment of the so called leaders in banking, government and the military. They have no purpose other than to see what they can steal before the end.
There could be a purpose, but our so called leaders do not seem to care about the country. Something else is occupying their minds. Maybe it is setting the stage for global government. Maybe it is the fatalism of the utterly incompetent, when they know that the task ahead of them is so far above their capabilities that they cannot perceive the goal or the first step. OR, maybe they are restrained and countered by another malevolent power that thwarts them at every turn.
What was it that Dark Helmet said about why evil always triumphs? No, I don't think that is the reason.
"Maybe it is setting the stage for global government."
It is.
Ten years ago I'd have ridiculed the idea. Now I know it's a fact.
Doncha know you have to spend 3 TRILLION destroying other peoples countries. Much more important to show who is boss.
No, the goal is to destroy the world so it can be reconstructed in their image. The US must be destroyed as well... and that means China, Britain, Germany and Saudi Arabia have to join the US down the shit-hole.
I use the train system in Germany very frequently - it is AWESOME and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT !!!!!!
The German trains go EVERYWHERE, run FAST, they are on-time, run frequently, carry bikes, look nice, ride smooth, and are safe.
I often feel that the American people should contract for the German government to run America and just fire ALL the American politicians and bureaucrats.
Tell that fucktard THICK WILLY down the page. He is a clueless little twat.
I see the ICE come past my home everyday here in the country, Cool looking.
Why don't you take your pathetic Eurozone loving trash ass out in the middle of that train track and play and leave the conversation here for the adults . Stop posting your childish bullshit that only your pathetic ilk like.
Childish is YOU, American imbecile.
You really don't get it, You call us Eurotrash because you are jealous that we have good schools and kids graduate with high school diploma equivalent to 3 years college in the USA.
You are jealous that we have a 21st century infrastructure.
There is an old saying 'if you stay in the shithouse long enough you no longer smell the stench''
This perfectly depicts knuckledragging morons like yourself.,
I don't like to see this Europe v America thing breaking out. Our problems are almost identical. Being destroyed by parasitic globalist financiers, offshoring good jobs, suffering mass immigration and an unrelenting assualt on European-based civilization. We have a common enemy.
Amen!
Where it is illegal to home school? No thanks.
Home schooling in USA> Imbeciles teaching imeciles. most of the homeschooled fucktards can't even point to Montana on a map of their own country and can't count to 21 without taking off their shoes and trousers.
Dixie Flatine == ignorant fucktstick who doesn't know shit from shinola about Europe.
FYI, Dumbo, a high school diploma in German schools is equal to 3 years college in the USA.
Don't try and bullshit me, Boy, I lived 35 years in the USA and now 26 years in Europe.
Home schooling in USA> Imbeciles teaching imbeciles. most of the homeschooled fucktards can't even point to Montana on a map of their own country and can't count to 21 without taking off their shoes and trousers.
Dixie Flatine == ignorant fucktstick who doesn't know shit from shinola about Europe.
FYI, Dumbo, a high school diploma in German schools is equal to 3 years college in the USA.
Don't try and bullshit me, Boy, I lived 35 years in the USA and now 26 years in Europe.
Lots of those homeschoolers push fucking Buybull fairytales into the heads of their kids.
They need to be charged with child abuse.
Hey Dixie
If Germany ran the US govt, kids would be getting algebra and advanced math in 7th and 8th grade and chemistry in 9th grade.
Its amazing how totally STUPID you are ., You must have been home schooled.
I know where you're coming from DutchBoy but the Germans would face the same problem as Americans: 40% of the population (and rising) comprised of low IQ blacks and Mestizos, unwilling and unable to learn.
You are the most undisciplined and immature individual I have had the misfortune to encounter on the internet. I don't really care if you have any good points to make. What a pitiful person...
Fucktards like you piss me off, you really don't know shit from shinola about ANYTHING and then say you are going to home school your kids.
You are an idiot., just fuck off
Why do you use a word that was invented in the US? Dont you have anything more creative from the land of regimented?
Land of the regimented? That shows you are a true idiot. Ever been here?
You mean land of the intelligent educated civilized people who do NOT need guns. Unlike you weak paranoid cowards who think you need a gun to be a man.
Take you hike you little shit for brains asswipe. I lived in the USA for 35 years so I know all the nasty words.
BTW, I never took UNEMPLOYMENT or FOOD STAMPS. I went to where the high paying jobs were, and that is NOT in the USA.
Have a nice day and I hope your one brain cell soon recovers. Lay off the flouridated water and dope.
This is what happens when Adolph isn't forced to take his medication.
What a despicable human.
Well the land ofthe regimented dominated scientific innovation for almost a century until Americans stole all their advanced patents in 1945.
I'm not knocking American achievements but it's insane to deny German inventive genius.
You talk about immature? assholes like you are why your country has become a shithole full of imbeciles.
Look you little punk. Talk to me when you have over 20,000 hours as flight engineer flying World wide and learn to speak 4 languages fluently.
Until then I pity you, because you are someone UNWILLING to learn ANYTHING.
DB certainly did provide an excellent service too. Their local railbus service was pretty innovative at the time (entirely through-ticketing, almost door-to-door), so like NS, people USED the system, 'cause it was simple, reliable, very pleasant, and really cost-effective. Like the Dutch, the Germans really looked after the travelling cyclist brigade, and so it was usually easier to cycle to the station and catch the train, rather than drive.
If riding in a clean, comfortable, fast, on time, safe, modern and efficient train is such a great thing - then why couldn't the fair charged be high enough to cover the cost + a profit?
This is a real question - I am not just being an asshole.
fare enough.
Thanks - for pointing out my error.
A fair fare.
Let me guess, you want Everything to be privatized and you play the stock market not caring about people but only the shareholders.
Not being an asshole. just taking a wild guess.,
I accept government has a role to play in some things - not sure why passenger trains are better off with the government. Same as providing phone service, electricity or any other item. What special skill does government bring to the service?
You have to admit that most of what government touches turns into a steaming pile of shit.
But that isn't the point -
If trains are so great - why can't the price of a ticket cover the cost and provide a return on capital? Why does it need to be heavily subsidized?
BTW - from your other posts I don't think it is possible for you to not be an asshole. It seems to be your natural talent.
LOL okay listen. Having lived in the USA for 35 years I know how the US govt has loads of very stupid people working in it. Therefore in YOUR case it stands to reason that everything the govt touches turns to shit.
Is quite different here., Some of the brightest people are in govt. OH and, BTW we have MUCH smaller govt per capita than in the USA. Private industry and businesses flourish here and dominate our economy.
In fact, if you try and talk to a REAL person in the govt its hard because everything is done now over the internet and I have what we call REAL ID (encrypted) where we do govt business online. Works fine.
WE closed a couple or prisons last year for lack of criminals saving millions.
OTOH, in the USA the prison system is a lucrative private enterprise. the more prisoners the happier the shareholders.
yes, I am an asshole but I am an INFORMED asshole.
I tell the truth and some people don't like that. I blow their myths about Europe out of the water. They hate that.
They rather believe what the USA media and the History channel feeds them.
Bon, goed gezegd. Toch wil ik wel eens een klapke doen met u. ludwig.billiet@alesys.be
Dank u wel, ik heb het notiert.
Tot morgen .
Back to the pack of wolves. We have that very, very bright wolf who doesn't hunt, but knows everything about hunting, so he sits and doesn't hunt, but instructs the one or two that actually tow the rope and go out and hunt. Yes, of course. That's how nature works. Six wolves talk about hunting, one or two do the actual work. Show me that successful pack.
This thread is about trains in the US.
If you are so informed maybe you would have realized that.
You think we can change the government and put them in charge of the trains?
If a person is informed they can understand what can and can't be changed.
Trains have to be socialist, too?
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2015/05/apocalypse-and-enormous-dis...
I see someone still likes to beat the "Peak Oil" drum. My great great grandchildren won't see the Peak Oil myth become reality.
Wasnt there a Vice President of one of the big banks killed in the train crash?
Kuntzler.
But how safe are railways in Europe? And how has their safety records changed over time?
The first place to look at is the European Railway Agency's (ERA) railway safety performance report published earlier this year. According to the agency, in 2011, there were 2,342 significant railway accidents reported in the EU resulting in 1,183 fatalities and 1,032 seriously injured.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jul/25/how-safe-are-europe...
Okay, the risk is about the same as flying. So you going to stop flying? and when a plane goes down few walk away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2l7fNx4YHY
Take a look at the risk numbers of flying or train compared to driving your car.
But you jump in your car everyday and think thats safe.
The most reliable comparison is risk of injury / severe injury / death per user kilometre / mile travelled.
Using this metric, car travel is right up there at the top of the table (still way behind riding a motorbike however), with a fairly big gap betwen cars, and public transport.
Years ago, ROSPA / TRRL further stratified driving risk according to a number of factors (age / gender / road class). Not surprisingly it turned out that the "safest" roads were the high-speed ones, which puts a slight dent into the very popular (but factually incorrect) "Speed Kills" meme.
Speed per se does NOT kill. INAPPROPRIATE speed kills, and inappropriate speed points squarely at poor / ineffective training, and poor risk perception, resulting from a combination of ineffective training, and learned habits - the "unexpected" effect of enforced "School Zone" speed restrictions. Legitimise jaywalking, and the learned sense of entitlement stays when they start to drive . . . . . .
Take a look at the risk numbers of flying or train compared to driving your car.
But you jump in your car everyday and think thats safe.
I'm so tired.
Cry Baby, Cry.
If you like your private stuff that never gets repaired or maintained because repairing/maintaining cost bucks, you can keep your private stuff that rusts, crumbles and eventually turns deadly.
No state ownership = to the third-world in a handbasket (but at developed country prices).
Bingo, I have seen rustbucket cars in the USA on the road that should have been in the crusher long ago. Dangerous to everyone but they don't care.
All they care about is Themselves , fuck their neighbour and fuck the world.
America is building a new country that excludes Europeans.
The Zionists think they can run a non-white America?
Good luck.
Of course the 'Zionists' don't think that for one instant. Their objective is to destroy the ethnic cohesion and power base of White Americans. And tens of millions of vibrants will do that. If it's any consolation they're up to the same game all over Europe and in Australia as well. But they bitterly oppose the same kind of people immigrating to Israel.
Strange that....
ISIS LOVES ISRAEL.
Strange that too....
All because Amtrak had to hire a gay activist Target cashier, who proceeds to step on the accelerator while taking another picture of his dick:
http://www.returnofkings.com/63900/brandon-bostians-amtrak-crash-exposes...
Dutchboy is being a coward and won't answer if he likes the Eurozone or not . But it doesn't surprise me. And his pro muslim view or least the denial of the destructive muslim herd. I doubt very much we will see his answer,,, coward.
Hey coward punk asswipe. I don't like the EU, I hope it collapses. I hope Greece exits
I am not pro musim or anti Muslim. I am anti Zionists , the ones who 911 to make fools like YOU hate Muslims. it worked because you are a gullible shit for brains imbecile. LOL
Destructive herd? Thats the USA and their military which is chock full of fucking Buybull thumpers who believe its right to kill anyone who doesn't kiss their ass.
In fact, the USA has killed well over 10 million innocent people around the globe since 1960 all because they didn't kiss the ass of the USA. None of those people were EVER a threat to the USA.
So what were you saying again, Mr. Coward Asswipe??
BTW Dumbo, all those ''Muslim terrorist attacks were your own CIA/Mossad/FBI
So PISS OFF!!!
One more thing Mr. Muslim hating coward.
I have been to 73 countries during my 40 years in aviation and lived and worked in 5 of them.
I have NEVER had any problems with Muslims. EVER.
Clowns like you are so easily hoodwinked by your media and govt. True Sheeple is what you are.
What a crock of shit!
What a COMPLETE crock of shit. Aviation....
You get off your plane, get into a fish bowl, get transported to the local Hilton, chill out 3 days, back in the fish bowl, back into the plane and back to Paris/London/NYC etc....and this is seeing the Muslim world?
BULLSHIT!
Try getting off the beatin path in Oman, or UAE, or Bahrain and see what is going on. Or my favorite shithole (the worst place on earth I have EVER been) Saudi. The guys, that leave their wives at home (their first cousins since most of them marry their cousins as that's the only girls they have ever met), park along the side of the road, and go hand-in-hand to the dunes....to do what I suppose? In Muscat the ragheads are allowed in the bars, they get pissed and try to pickup OTHER GUYS! Welcome to the muslim world Dutchy! They are not even civilized enough to have whores, they are continually freaking out with each other. They especially like young boys......its FUCKING SICK!
The Pakistany labourers that keep pet goats....and sleep with them. And "play" with them....in every way. Dutchy you have NO IDEA what is going on the muslim world, on a daily basis.
Ever see the Youtube vids of the Palistinians marrying off 10 year old girls? Come on Dutchy, you're an expert! Tell us all about it! When the girls get their sex organs hacked off at the age of 6! "I have NEVER had any problems with Muslims. EVER."
I'm sure you haven't Dutchy because to keep your little lifestyle you need to keep your head in the sand and you're doing a bankup job of it.
The ragheads are a sick bunch but they don't murder their young, so they will take over. For 2 thousand years Christians didn't murder our young so we took over.....now its our "right" to murder our young (for convienience sake) so the arithmatic says we will disappear....and maybe we deserve to.
Keep your head in the sand Dutchy, you're good at it.
Squid
Best advice you can give your kids is not to go to college, but instead hook up with someone from overseas so they can get a dual passport. Once out of here and established, blow off your US citizenship. Now not only are you off the hook for a life of debt, you have opportunity once again.
Bingo thats what I did, and the day I got my Dutch citizenship back all kinds of high paying jobs opened up for me in Europe. Before that I was stuck having to work NATO jobs to keep SOFA status to stay here.
Bingo thats what I did, and the day I got my Dutch citizenship back all kinds of high paying jobs opened up for me in Europe. Before that I was stuck having to work NATO jobs to keep SOFA status to stay here.
“Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
– Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.
Thanks ZeroHedge, for posting something besides "Free Market Cures All Ills" mantra thinking. To quote Michael Hudson: "All successful economies of the past have been mixed economies."
It would be nice, you know, to have a shared, public resource that actually works. The railways in Germany are astounding, and contribute massively to the quality of life there. Our failing infrastructure *is* a potent symbol of how we think of our society, it *is* a statement that "I can just get mine and retire to a house with my nuclear family and society be damned".
Infrastructure is where socialist countries do very well. Gasp! I lived in one for two years and loved everytime I used public transport! I lived in another Euro country with an excellent bus system, and it was the sh1t! Also, free healthcare and university were the sh1t! I got doctor's checkups and even a master's degree for a fraction of what they would cost me here. Just admit it, this country fvcking sucks.
Dutch boy your Eurozone answer surprises me. You seem to hate Americans even though you are one . I know you will say your not but if you were born here then you are . As for the muslim herd allowed to overrun Europe soon Europeans will realize that was a major mistake that maybe True Europeans death lblow.
A. I was not born in the USA.
B. I immigrated to USA in 1951
C. I left USA in 1989
D. I hate the EU, but love my country,
E. The EU wants to become like the USA with Brussels having power
F. There is no Muslim herd here. There is a big refugee crisis because of American wars of aggression causing them to flee.
No one living outside of the DC/New York corridor uses or gives a shit about passenger trains or AMTRAK. Shut it down and save taxpayers outside of the entitled East Coast some money.
Yeah whatever. We are in truly uncharted territory here. Never in the history of "dead nations walking" has the populace been so well armed with both information firepower and small arms firepower.
Looking at the gobs of unwashed, dependent masses clamoring onto trains in India or even Japan is enough to turn one's stomach and make one to never want to ride a trian.
19th century technology is not the answer to our woes. Besides, where did that $800Billion "stimulus" go?
Clearly, this accident should not have happen. In every developped country, a simple conductor without any automatic protection is not considered safe enough for passenger transportation. That such condition could exist on the NY-Washington line in the 21th century is incredible. Automatic protection system were invented nearly one hundred years ago after exactly this sort of incident ...
Passenger train can have their justification but only on specific high density short line. Their main advantage is to go from downtown to downtown. In transportation there is no such thing as one best solution for every needs. It depends of the distance, the price and the customer needs.