High Speed Rail Debate

by James Landers of Saint Petersburg, Fl. James is the founder of The Principle Institute. He lives in Saint Petersburg, Fl with his wife Chafika Landers and their three children.

Every so often I will turn on the mainstream media nightly news to see what they are talking about and how they talk about it. Last night I turned on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Interestingly enough the story that came on was about high-speed rail around the globe and in the USA.

The story, and I forget who the beat reporter was, revolved at first around China. They are in the midst of a massive high-speed rail build-up. While the Chinese are glad to show off what they are doing and share with anyone who will listen their expansive plans, they are also a very closed-lipped and autocratic society. Inherently, Chinese persons are loathe to criticize anything from the government lest they be turned into the latest “Bodies in Motion” exhibit or interned in a forced labor camp with their families for the rest of their lives.

And there we have NBC hailing China as the great savior of “green” technology through high-speed rail that will never pay for itself. NEVER. In fact, there are only two high-speed rails on the planet that have broken even, ““High-speed rail is good for society and it’s good for the environment, but it’s not a profitable business,” said Mr. Barrón of the International Union of Railways. He reckons that only two routes in the world — between Tokyo and Osaka, and between Paris and Lyon, France — have broken even.” Yet where is the news on that? Ignored completely. In fact, in last night’s NBC segment passing mention was made over the high prices for tickets, as well as passing mention of the lack of environmental controls in China and the fact that the government answers to no one was also just glossed over.

“And why aren’t there more high-speed rails in the USA?”, led the NBC segment into what already seemed like an answered question----Ticket Prices, Environmental Control and the government. Why would you need to go any further than that?

Ohhhh, let’s see, in a microcosm we had the “Cash-for-clunkers” debacle. First the program was funded $1bb that was supposed to last for a year. After a couple of weeks the government upped the ante to $3bb for a year and quickly folded on that estimation by about 10 months. That’s right, the best government auditors got it wrong by $2bb and 10 months. WOW!!! And we trust them to tell us that costs will not overrun AND that profits will be made on a system tried the world over with only 2 lines breaking even? And, on 9 out of every 10 high-speed rail systems built the cost overruns are, on average, 45% higher than original estimates. And from the same book, Megaprojects and Risk, “Cost underestimation and overrun cannot be explained by error and seem to be best explained by strategic misrepresentation, namely lying with a view to getting projects started.”

And the whine from the liberals who have no intention of getting out of your pocket is “Why are we not building high-speed rails?”
The answer is patently obvious.

"Investing" in Education??

By James Landers of Saint Petersburg, Florida. James is a serial Entrepreneur responsible for multiple successful ventures and is the co-founder of The Principle Institute. Education and the enlightenment, creativity and growth that comes from it are undoubtedly a good thing. However, government spending does necessarily bring us the benefit desire. Consider this....The average, inflation-adjusted, "investment" per student(K -12) in the US was $5393 in 1970. By 2004, this figure that exploded to $11,470. Where are the measurable gains in performance? During those same years, math results on the NAEP(National Assessment of Educational Progress) rose a ridiculous 1% while reading scores remained flat. Simply put, the money did not produce results. The results in higher ed are even worse. 45% of people holding a bachelor's degree were proficient readers in 1992 according to the NAAL. By 2003, that figure dropped to 31%. The discouraging results do not contain themselves to reading. No positive improvement was shown in quantitative proficiency. Where did the money go?? Have you visited your local community college and/or 4-year college lately? Beside the Class A classrooms and dormitories sprouting up everywhere, the administrative payrolls have exploded. Universities continue to build knowing that the politicians will continue to fund. Is this the right approach? If it is, we should not struggle to confer the economic benefits from our taxpayer investment. Serious discussion needs to be put on the table debating the value of the average bachelors degree. Why do we continue to devalue the role of trade schools?? A change must come rooted in our need to remain competitive. Politicians will not provide the answer and we should stop asking them for answers. The not stop, "caring contest" will require they spend money to show they care, regardless of the return on investment. As citizens, we all want what is best for our children and our communities. Pouring money into diploma mills is wasteful and harmful to our country.