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As an outsider from Europe: what I see that americans hate any publicly funded projects. "If it doesn't benefit me why should I pay taxes for that?" See the who

As an outsider from Europe: what I see that americans hate any publicly funded projects. "If it doesn't benefit me why should I pay taxes for that?" See the whole healthcare system. "I'm healthy, never sick why should I pay the cancer treatment of those who are obese and smoke all the time?" That's totally different in Europe. Not just in the nordic countries but generally everywhere. So the same applies for public transport and such as well. Also add on the top of that the lowest gas prices in the western world https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/ https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/

SamReidHughes 7y ago
Californians voted for the high speed rail project in a ballot initiative.
- malandrew 7y ago
  And they aren’t going to get what they were promised. With boondoggles like these, it shouldn’t be a surprise why American’s are against infrastructure projects. It’s all over promising and under delivering The same thing happened with the East span of the Bay Bridge.
- phlakaton 7y ago
  Would they have if it had been, say, a $29B proposition instead of a $9B one, and not to be completed until all the baby boomers were 90+ years old? This project has been facing stiff headwinds from the moment it began. If we had that vote again, knowing what we know now, I doubt it would pass.
  - SamReidHughes 7y ago
    Agreed. I was always against it, because I knew it would play out this way :-). I’d rather force the TSA to have an SLA.
GhettoMaestro 7y ago
> As an outsider from Europe: what I see that americans hate any publicly funded projects. [...] America has become a rat-ship. It is filled with folks that have amazing ideas of how to spend other people's money. Don't be disdainful when the people whose money you have pissed away start getting upset at "grand ideas". We see it as more of the same mostly: corruption, shitty-quality infrastructure, and handouts ("jobs" programs). Rarely do these "grand ideas" translate into real benefits over the long term.

SamReidHughes 7y ago

Californians voted for the high speed rail project in a ballot initiative.

malandrew 7y ago
And they aren’t going to get what they were promised. With boondoggles like these, it shouldn’t be a surprise why American’s are against infrastructure projects. It’s all over promising and under delivering The same thing happened with the East span of the Bay Bridge.
phlakaton 7y ago
Would they have if it had been, say, a $29B proposition instead of a $9B one, and not to be completed until all the baby boomers were 90+ years old? This project has been facing stiff headwinds from the moment it began. If we had that vote again, knowing what we know now, I doubt it would pass.
- SamReidHughes 7y ago
  Agreed. I was always against it, because I knew it would play out this way :-). I’d rather force the TSA to have an SLA.

GhettoMaestro 7y ago

> As an outsider from Europe: what I see that americans hate any publicly funded projects. [...] America has become a rat-ship. It is filled with folks that have amazing ideas of how to spend other people's money. Don't be disdainful when the people whose money you have pissed away start getting upset at "grand ideas". We see it as more of the same mostly: corruption, shitty-quality infrastructure, and handouts ("jobs" programs). Rarely do these "grand ideas" translate into real benefits over the long term.