Highways work. Autos may be more dangerous and less efficient but the end result is better customer service.
So, they work, except that they cost more to operate, pollute the atmosphere more, and kill more people?
The only benefit is a nominal convenience factor that we're all gonna have to get over as we're forced to
look at how much it costs us to drive each individual mile.
The current Amtrac business plan does not work. If it is going to be a government program, get the private sector out entirely. Otherwise, let it succeed or fail on its own merit.
So you'd endorse a fully-nationalized rail system, rather than making the adjustments necessary to
make a private or part-private system profitable? It's actually a faily simple fix. Adding additional
track parallel with existing routes would require some initial investment, but under the current system,
the freight lines own
all the track, and Amtrak has to fit passenger schedules to the whims of
freight carriers. Devoted long-distance passenger track would allow more customer-friendly scheduling,
which, combined with the rapidly rising costs to drive or fly pretty much anywhere, would lead to more
riders, creating... ta-da! Profitability! At the same time, the additional land required would be relatively
little, analogous to adding traffic lanes to the interstate.
Oh, also, there are things like
market forces,
supply & demand, but a huge piece of the current $4
gallon of gas is Dick Cheney's "energy task force", the members of which he still refuses to name.
The operative terms here are
market manipulation,
collusion,
price-fixing, and
conspiracy.
The short supply rationalization would fly better if
any of the major oil companies were running
their refineries at full capacity, or even close, but as long as they have an agreement not to undercut
each other, there's no need. Government regulation is supposed to protect us from this sort of thing,
but clearly our current executive branch is unconcerned with the good of commoners.
You will be graded for speling and, puntuation.
did you mean to misspell "spelling and punctuation"?
I also meant to put the comma
after "and".
I'm taking points off for failing to catch that.
(...but I'll give 'em back for the Olbermann post. Ouch!
I don't have cable, so I'd have missed that.)