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I live in CA, I voted against the project, and I was correct in calling it an absolute disaster from the start. You have Internet access, shouldn't take you more than a minute to get the numbers yourself.
You're welcome.
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/Wo....aspx?id=13770
I live in CA, I voted against the project, and I was correct in calling it an absolute disaster from the start. You have Internet access, shouldn't take you more than a minute to get the numbers yourself.
The pensions are NON funded I.O.U.. . and this needs to change…The CA legislature wont budge on this...State & City workers get to retiree will full pay & benefits after 20 years & then go on to another job & collect pension #2 or #3…The private sector who pays for it no longer can…CA budget is not balanced….
not even close. They are already projected to be over that estimate for phase 1 alone.
Worst part about the whole high speed rail is how that **** Feinstein got her husband the contract for the rail.
TSA, are you intellectually capable of supporting an argument? It seems you are not.
We already know what your argument is. Now you go about the process of showing proof. Or are you like Darrin in that you are ashamed of your sources so try and hide them?
That is a link and not an argument. It looks like we can add independent thought to critical thinking and reading skills.
You very well could be right. Not a Cali resident. I only know about the project because I work in the transportation industry, and when someone is going to spend billions of dollars on transportation, we all hear about it. I don't know much on the specifics, I just know where to find the website.
I'm assuming you're referring to the recently awarded design-build package. No idea what the Feinstein ties are, but looking at the bid results the joint venture that won was low bidder on cost by $100 million. Looks to me like the team that won was the team that should have won.
That does seem a legitimate concern. The boomers should not have been allowed to vote themselves in such a gravy train. 20 years and you don't even have to go to work anymore to get paid does seem a fat fat deal. Where do you think the electoral inertia is coming from? I am guessing it is because of the huge active voting block that wants it to stay the same.
I keep saying things won't change until the boomers are not the dominant plurality.
Lol, Sportcamper just all over the OP. Good thread though. Yes, California is a shining example of what can happen when liberals have a supermajority for a generation or two.
Let me know what you learned from the link you pretended to not click.
I clicked it and never fronted like I hadn't. I am not going to make your argument for you though. In your own words explain why their accounting adjustment is more valid than the official accounting. Can you do it?
All you are doing here is showing that you are comfortable about making statements on things you don't understand or understand poorly. Given your intellect I suppose you have to live like that but it is what it is.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.
The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (October 15, 1747 – January 5, 1813) was a Scottish-born British lawyer and writer.
I am pretty sure that sums up California....
There is nothing to argue here, I was right from the get go.
California on the Brink: Pension Crisis About to Get Worse
http://www.foxbusiness.com/governmen...est=latestnews
Infrastructure projects are great....when you've saved up money first.
Otherwise, it's like buying a Lamborghini when you have a 25K/year job and saying look how great my personal GDP is this month!
The "temporary" form of government has outlived the guy who said that by 200 years.A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.
The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (October 15, 1747 – January 5, 1813) was a Scottish-born British lawyer and writer.
I am pretty sure that sums up California....
Two words.
Vacuous
Pla ude
Not exactly something to base any real world policy on, IMO.
Fox business "news"? Finding something horribly wrong in a state that votes for Democrats?
Say it ain't so....
(rolls eyes)
Every state and almost every city has pension foibles, and they are all going to get worse.
Not really.
Infrastructure contributes to economic activity when it is being built, and long after it is constructed, when businesses and individuals use it to conduct their own business.
It is much more akin to an investment, with a return on equity.
Your analogy is not only wrong, it demonstrates something that is pretty much the opposite of what is actually happening when governments build needed infrastructure, or repair existing infrastructure.
I learned the people running the website either dont' understand inflation or are deliberately misleading, when they try to monkey with time value of money assumptions. At first glance, they essentially make the amatuers mistake of bringing future dollars to the present and making them equivalent.
Further, the links that the 'scam' website themselves post don't always exactly say what they think it says.
One good example is the GAO analysis they posted, claiming it "criticizes" the figures used to cost the project.
Technically yes, it is critical of the cost analysis used by the Cali authority, in the way that any honest critical analysis is.
Here is the summary:
High-Speed Passenger Rail:
Preliminary Assessment of California's Cost Estimates and Other Challenges
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-163TBased on an initial evaluation of the California High Speed Rail Authority's (Authority) cost estimates, GAO found that they exhibit certain strengths and weaknesses when compared to best practices in GAO's Cost Guide. Adherence with the Cost Guide reduces the risk of cost overruns and missed deadlines. GAO's preliminary evaluation indicates that the cost estimates are comprehensive in that they include major components of construction and operating costs. However, they are not based on a complete set of assumptions, such as how the Authority expects to adapt existing high-speed rail technology to the project in California. The cost estimates are accurate in that they are based on the most recent project scope, include an inflation adjustment, and contain few mathematical errors. And while the cost estimates' methodologies are generally do ented, in some cases GAO was unable to trace the final cost estimate back to its source do entation and could not verify how certain cost components, such as stations and trains, were calculated. Finally, the Authority evaluated the credibility of its estimates by performing both a sensitivity analysis (assessing changes in key cost inputs) and an independent cost estimate, but these tests did not encompass the entire cost estimate for the project. For example, the sensitivity analysis of the construction cost estimate was limited to 30 miles of the first construction segment. The Authority also did not conduct a risk and uncertainty analysis to determine the likelihood that the estimates would be met. The Authority is currently taking some steps to improve its cost estimates.
In short: "They appear to have gotten a reasonable estimate, but it could be better."
I haven't bothered with reading the full report. The summaries for GAO reports tend to be spot-on though.
Not quite as damning as you want it to be.
High speed rail is simply an investment in long-distance transportation. No more, no less. Either spend money on it, or spend money about on the same scale to expand airports, or deal with congestion at those airports.
Quite frankly, I think that since the TSA's long lines and pat downs for planes have made that so problematic, that the option to take a train that can avoid the security lines, and can be routed to go directly to a city center, would seem to be a very demanded product.
Why do you prefer to spend massivel amounts of tax money on airports?
http://www.economist.com/news/leader...inous-promises
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...close-gap.html
http://www.contracostatimes.com/edit...s-must-address
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/28/537...gislature.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb...ornia-20130224
I hope this meets the RG threshold for media cites.
A discussion of California is particularly germane considering the trumpeting of their budget successes over the last few months.
Exactly. Build rail or build freeways and airports. Rail seems to satisfy Ockham.
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