At 12:35 PM 1/30/2003 -0600, Harmon Seaver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 01:28:54PM -0500, Trei, Peter wrote:How do you think the U.S. transcontinental railroad was built. Totally subsidized. Not many today know that as soon as the spike was driven, in 1869, to connect the coasts both the Union Pacific and Central Pacific were bankrupt. The Great Northern was a famously efficient and profitable operation, by contrast.
> >
> Factor in the subsidies? OK, lets start with the $20 odd billion in
> subsidies
> Amtrak has burned through since its inception. Back in '97 the average
> subsidy for a Chicago to Denver passenger was $650.
Uh huh, and what about the 20 billion the airlines got in just the last year
or two? And all the billions for airports for the 70 or so years before that?
>
> Counting in subsidies, that $130 round trip is probably over to $300, most
> of it from taxpayers. It would be cheaper to close down the whole system,
> and give passengers free (to them) bus or air tickets.
"Our own line in the north," Hill boasted, "was built without any government aid, even the right of way, through hundreds of miles of public lands, being paid for in
cash. Hill (naturally) resented the fact that his rivals were receiving millions of dollars in government subsidies. In an 1893 letter to a friend he complained, "The government should not furnish capital to these companies, in addition to their enormous land subsidies, to enable them to conduct their business in competition with enterprises that have received no aid from the public treasury.
steve
