Great article James. It great to know that some projects are still moving forward. Part of the problem/associated cost with high speed rail is the cost of acquiring the land it would be built upon (aside from regulatory morass). There are too many gatekeepers and too many lawsuits in America.
This is certainly a drastic change, but if we redefined real property as partially owned, the cost and delays could be greatly alleviated.
Every time that an improvement is made to our infrastructure (as in the case of high-speed rail travel), some of our tax money is used and the value and usefulness of the land close to the improvement is made greater. Surely this rise in value and its associated land prices, ground rents etc., that benefit the land owner is not due to what he/she did to make this improvement. This benefit should be returned to the locality or state and not squandered on the landlords fancy preferences. We should tax land values and not earnings.
Hi Jim, how about getting the government out of transportation and let individual Americans vote with their wallets as to what modes of transportation they prefer? (privatize the interstate highway system, deregulate air, rail, road and sea travel, remove electric vehicle subsidies, end gasoline taxes, etc., etc.) I bet we would see competitive passenger rail solutions realized sooner rather than later between populated centers in close proximity to one another. Cheers!
Great article James. It great to know that some projects are still moving forward. Part of the problem/associated cost with high speed rail is the cost of acquiring the land it would be built upon (aside from regulatory morass). There are too many gatekeepers and too many lawsuits in America.
This is certainly a drastic change, but if we redefined real property as partially owned, the cost and delays could be greatly alleviated.
Every time that an improvement is made to our infrastructure (as in the case of high-speed rail travel), some of our tax money is used and the value and usefulness of the land close to the improvement is made greater. Surely this rise in value and its associated land prices, ground rents etc., that benefit the land owner is not due to what he/she did to make this improvement. This benefit should be returned to the locality or state and not squandered on the landlords fancy preferences. We should tax land values and not earnings.
Hi Jim, how about getting the government out of transportation and let individual Americans vote with their wallets as to what modes of transportation they prefer? (privatize the interstate highway system, deregulate air, rail, road and sea travel, remove electric vehicle subsidies, end gasoline taxes, etc., etc.) I bet we would see competitive passenger rail solutions realized sooner rather than later between populated centers in close proximity to one another. Cheers!