The Best for the Most Ridiculous

The lyrics to what some people claim is the best rock-and-roll song in history were the inspiration for what some say is the best newspaper headline in history. The article is about one of the most ridiculous ideas in history, which is spending more than $150 million rebuilding a former rail line from Armagh (population under 15,000) to Portadown (population 22,000), in Northern Ireland.

If any person can’t discharge forcefully leads him 20mg tadalafil prices http://pdxcommercial.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/6230-NE-Halsey-St.-Flyer.pdf to suffer low libido in addition to erectile dysfunction. How is ED diagnosed? Many men feel extremely embarrassed and shy to discuss such incapability with his partner at length and thus, makes generic sildenafil canada it extremely important for a female do proper research and find out about number of available products to ensure that you can resume having a sex life while dealing with depression. Storage: Stored it at 25 try that levitra prices degrees C. Sildenafil jelly is also available in many Soft Versions Kamagra brand of ED medications with a quick onset and relatively mild adverse https://pdxcommercial.com/32-desired-addresses-portland-business/ buy cheap levitra effects due to lower dosage. This line was once part of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland, which was different from the Great Northern Railway of Great Britain, which is different from the Great Northern Railway of the United States (which, however, got its name because its founder admired the Great Britain company). The line was closed partly due to declining business and partly because, when Ireland was partitioned into Ireland and Northern Ireland, the latter considered the line a security risk.

The Antiplanner is not Irish enough to have ever actually visited Armagh or Portadown, and I don’t have data about Northern Ireland that is separate from Great Britain. But it seems likely that transport habits are not much different in Northern Ireland than in the rest of Ireland, and Eurostat says that trains carry less than 3 percent of passenger travel in Ireland, while cars move 84 percent and buses do the rest (click on “Modal split of passenger transport”; Eurostat doesn’t separate out air travel). Building a rail line between two small cities is not going to change that, and even if it did, there any no reason to think that taxpayers will get any benefits from funding it. Of course, reason usually has nothing to do with these rail proposals, so naturally some people want to do it anyway.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

2 Responses to The Best for the Most Ridiculous

  1. msetty says:

    Your opposition to a rail line likely to carry less than a reasonable number of people relative to its potential cost would be more credible if you also pointed out that far too many road projects are built that don’t pass any reasonable economic justification or cost-benefit ratio.

    A particularly egregious example in Northern California is the proposed Highway 101 bypass around Willits in Mendocino County, which MAY save 4,000-5,000 through auto trips perhaps 5 minutes each, at a cost of $150+ million. Even at a very favorable government interest rate of 3.5% (say 5% annually), the $7.5 million annual cost comes out to $50+/hour of time saved, e.g., 3-4 times what the time savings may actually be worth. Of course, local highway-oriented businesses may lose a lot of through traffic business, let alone the negative economic and environmental impacts on local residents.

  2. LazyReader says:

    First of all, the greatest rock song is Smells Like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH332wYtO6w

    Second, in the past, Americans would call a 150 million dollar rail line through the boondocks “Government Waste”, today we call it Stimulus. And this goes beyond party lines. It’s also a Republican scheme as well. Because Republicans have rural constituents. And rural constituents are loyal voters, Republicans for life. As such rural voters really don’t mind earmarks and federal expenditures in their district especially to get things that really don’t cost them a thing. Bridges, highways, rail lines, stadiums, museums, performing arts centers.

    Republicans rally against “Big Government,” it doesn’t stop them from bulking it
    up. Budget data reveals that Republican lawmakers generate as much “pork” as their Democratic counterparts. Reasons for subsidies include general concern to ignorance of antiquated subsidies that serve no purpose. Just look at the mohair subsidies. Mohair’s a yarn made from the angora goat, very pricey today. But the US government subsidized it as part to keep price control for the materials wool and mohair to ensure a supply for soldier uniforms as part of the 1954 National wool Act and 54′ Farm Bill. Despite subsidies, wool and mohair production shrunk. The strategic importance declined as the US adopted uniforms made of synthetic fibers; today’s soldiers wear uniforms of nylon,cotton,poly blends and long since removed wool from the list of strategic materials in 1960. By 2000, Congress had appropriated $20 million for goat and sheep producers, animals like goats, sheep and llamas are more tax write off than commodity. The Republicans’ promised spending cuts are directed at “nondefense discretionary” spending. Fine. Cut that. But “nondefense discretionary” spending is just 15 percent of the budget. The Republicans’ pledge leaves out the big stuff: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what the government calls defense. That’s where the big money is. You could eliminate all nondefense discretionary spending, and you wouldn’t solve the problem. You have to go a lot further than that, and that’s why we have to touch those other areas.

    People talk about the big lobbying groups. Boeing, Defense contractors, IBM, Microsoft (which prior to the mid 90’s spent barely anything on lobbying, now they spend over 120 million), Pharmaceutical firms, Insurance for floods, people, health, automotive and they’re there. Even so they’re outnumbered 20 to 1 by the small unheard of lobbyists. The advocates for small, discrete, local spending, some so ridiculous you’d assume they were made up. Whether it’s affordable housing for residents of the Bronx, new trails for state parks, or clean up of industrial sites, automobiles for poor residents, free bike helmets for people in wealthy neighborhoods, cell phones for drug addicts and smokers, cell phones for prostitutes (and not our home grown American prostitutes either, Chinese prostitutes), birth control for knocked up teenage sluts, free heroin in San Francisco.

    It’s easy to understand why so much money slips by our supposed budget office. Maybe because the accounting process is so boring they simply don’t pay attention. America is on a path to bankruptcy. It’s easy to get bogged down arguing about lots of small cuts, like counting grains of sand, what people don’t realize, grains of sand add up.

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