Hitting the Wall | Harder World
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The reason why we invest in infrastructure has changed. It’s not a question of what will yield a positive return for the company building it, but what might attract the most in government subsidies in order to shift costs onto the taxpayer to make it possible to build marginal projects. High gas prices make rail transport more attractive. Intermodal transport (railroads carrying trailers or containers of items) is pretty routine.
This doesn’t mean that the old projects weren’t subsidized. The government granted land for the railroads to have the right-of-way for their projects, and that right-of-way generally extended hundreds of yards, if not miles, on either side of where the rail was eventually laid.
Though people’s desires may well be infinite, their ability to pay for what they want is not, and that acts as a brake on acquisition. We are in about thirty years of more or less stagnant wages, so if people want to buy the new shiny thing, they have to give something up or accrue more debt in most cases. There is a “free cell phone” tent a couple of blocks from my house. This is the phone that is paid for by the tax on telephone service that gives people at most a couple of hours of call time monthly for free, and is meant for emergency calls for low-income people. I’d bet that they don’t get an iPhone with that service.
Here’s what I see is the problem: society is changing and we can’t afford it. As I’ve discussed, I worked for the local government run railroad. It was so corrupt and while they claimed they couldn’t afford raises were making sure the big wigs got theirs. Meanwhile they kept raising fees. It really opened to my eyes about corruption but there’s the other problem is they keep getting money where does it go? I worked in a city known for corruption and everyone knows it.
The other problem of course is declining white collar jobs. Many years ago if you didn’t work in a factory you commuted. My mother got a job paying well after high school. Now of course with technology, outsourcing and visa workers less people commute. Many others are now freelancers working from home. Technology has made it both better and worse.
Hitting the Wall | Harder World
Previous PostI’m not the only jerk that did it…check this out…Next PostWhat happened here???
The reason why we invest in infrastructure has changed. It’s not a question of what will yield a positive return for the company building it, but what might attract the most in government subsidies in order to shift costs onto the taxpayer to make it possible to build marginal projects. High gas prices make rail transport more attractive. Intermodal transport (railroads carrying trailers or containers of items) is pretty routine.
This doesn’t mean that the old projects weren’t subsidized. The government granted land for the railroads to have the right-of-way for their projects, and that right-of-way generally extended hundreds of yards, if not miles, on either side of where the rail was eventually laid.
Though people’s desires may well be infinite, their ability to pay for what they want is not, and that acts as a brake on acquisition. We are in about thirty years of more or less stagnant wages, so if people want to buy the new shiny thing, they have to give something up or accrue more debt in most cases.
 There is a “free cell phone” tent a couple of blocks from my house. This is the phone that is paid for by the tax on telephone service that gives people at most a couple of hours of call time monthly for free, and is meant for emergency calls for low-income people. I’d bet that they don’t get an iPhone with that service.
Here’s what I see is the problem: society is changing and we can’t afford it. As I’ve discussed, I worked for the local government run railroad. It was so corrupt and while they claimed they couldn’t afford raises were making sure the big wigs got theirs. Meanwhile they kept raising fees. It really opened to my eyes about corruption but there’s the other problem is they keep getting money where does it go? I worked in a city known for corruption and everyone knows it.
The other problem of course is declining white collar jobs. Many years ago if you didn’t work in a factory you commuted. My mother got a job paying well after high school. Now of course with technology, outsourcing and visa workers less people commute. Many others are now freelancers working from home. Technology has made it both better and worse.