I am not trying to be adversarial here and I am not trying to imply that you are trying to harm people with your policy opinions, I just disagree with some of y

I am not trying to be adversarial here and I am not trying to imply that you are trying to harm people with your policy opinions, I just disagree with some of your reasoning. I think it is pretty clear you care about these things as much as I do or more, you have just come to different conclusions than me, and that's OK. I never said roads are a bad investment, I just think they shouldn't be our only investment. Roads are critical and I wish ours were better maintained. I don't think that saying there are ripple effects that improve people's lives from building new infrastructure is vaporware or controversial. It happened when we first build railroads, transcontinental roads, and airports. I think it is safe to assume that this trend will extend to HSR as well. Just because the effects of HSR will manifest in ways that arent clear right now, doesn't mean that they won't happen. You seem to think that these effects will have a negative impact on society but I disagree. When you give people more options, people will take advantage of them, resulting in economic growth, which will improve people's lives. There are plenty of places in the US that are flat enough and have the right density for HSR. The central valley in california, the north east corridor, western texas, and Florida are all good examples. These systems don't necessarily have to be connected to make sense. At a certain distance, flying makes more sense, and that is okay, we don't have to drill tunnels through the rockies to have functional systems. People don't just travel to commute, they also travel for work, pleasure, to access healthcare, etc. These things will be easier with HSR. Your argument that it centralizes jobs doesn't really make sense because that is already how it works in the US right now anyway, which you acknowledged. Adding HSR will give people who live farther away more access to these jobs, which I think is a good thing. Yes the fed doesn't literally print money, but that is effectively what happens, debt or no debt. The government is suggesting a 2 trillion dollar infrastructure investment, which many consider to be me moderate. The US has the credit to invest more, and I believe the investment is worth the debt.