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The US is willing to run at a $3T deficit so the concept of needing tax money or fiscal viability to build things is tenuous at best. Did taxpayers get slammed
by sgustard 6y ago
The US is willing to run at a $3T deficit so the concept of needing tax money or fiscal viability to build things is tenuous at best.
Did taxpayers get slammed when we built the transcontinental RR?
- supernova87a 6y agoNo, but the early railroads of this country were built when there were no property rights of competing owners to defend (or respect), few comparable alternative modes of transportation, and practically no safety or regulatory measures to govern how it was built. That said, the cost of building things in the US is a major problem.
- ornornor 6y agoIt was also built by Chinese immigrants slaves at essentially no cost to the builders, wasn’t it?
- Zach_the_Lizard 6y agoDepends on the region. Out West it was mostly Chinese workers. Back East it was the Irish.
- tonyarkles 6y ago> Did taxpayers get slammed when we built the transcontinental RR? Heh, I don't know much about the history of the transcontinental railroad in the US, but up here in Canada it was relatively cheap because... well... to be blunt, we used primarily Chinese labour and did not give a single crap about whether or not they died building it.
- jeffbee 6y agoThe US government gave railroad companies 175 million acres of free land, 10% of the nation (ex. Alaska), to get those railroads built. It was an incredibly costly endeavor.