High Speed rail plan for the US

[NickF1011]

How did human beings survive to this point?

 

Not very easily, that's for sure. There's a reason life expectancy is so much lower in undeveloped nations.

[Critic]

I'll pray for you tonight, Critic. (regardless of whether or not you care or want me to.)

 

I don't know what has got you down, but whatever it is, I hope it resolves itself soon. You shouldn't go through life pissed. Turn that frown, upside down.

 

BTW, that's "Mr. Tool".

Do as you wish MR. Ranger, sir, I think you and I would get along fine outside of politics too. But I just can't stand to see constant remarks about how people's lives are just dictated by their own actions. Life isn't that simple.

 

Since I'm in a minority here on how I think, that what I do effects others, and I can't change that thinking, I'll just trundle on and keep on truckin'. But as long as others think they can keep doing the same ol and keep getting a different response, I'll just wait. Politics are formed very early in life, and it seems to be a life-long situation where you stay in your thinking.

 

I can use all the praying for me I can get. Still doesn't mean I will get it right.

 

 

NOW BACK TO TOPIC: Last night I watched a show about TRAINS on cable and the highest speed train LEGALLY allowed in the USA can only due 150 MPH. I personally think it's folly to pursue a country-wide passenger high speed rail system.

[NickF1011]

Politics are formed very early in life, and it seems to be a life-long situation where you stay in your thinking.

 

I'm not so sure about that. While it's true in many cases, my political leanings didn't really appear more strongly until the past 5-6 years in my mid-late 20's. My oldest brother, in his late 30's, is noticably heading toward the left in his way of thinking where he was previously a fervent right thinker.

[RaZor]

Whether we like it not, I am afraid that transportation that is used by the masses in the future, in our country, may be very different than what most of us imagine. Trains are going to play a greater part than what we envision, but most of us are resistant to change and want most things to stay just as they are . . . and some would like it to revert to the "good old days" of Ozzie & Harriet.

 

There is very little chance that is going to happen IMO and for those that can adjust their attitudes will enjoy their life more IMO (instead of fighting with the inevitable).

 

A greater use of public transportation is in our future - not for everyone, or every situation (like Ranger driving from Raleigh to W.Va.), but it will be there (where it will impact the greatest amount of peeps).

 

Last year when gas shot through the roof, the commuter trains in So Fla (running north and south from West Palm Beach to Miami) zoomed to capacity over night. It made economic sense to everyone that could use such a service. Not everyone could because of connecting transportation to their jobs or destinations, but people were raving about it as a huge money saver. I remember seeing peeps being interviewed that were looking at gas cost of several hundreds of dollars per month to drive -- or $40-50 per month to use the train. It was very easy to make that decision, I would think. And for those that were smart enough to realize that gas cost is just one of the costs of driving a car . . . well, that made it even easier.

 

It takes a long time to put such a network together and we might as well get started with the best candidates (connecting major cities etc) as shown on the map in post#1. Delaying it just means higher cost.

[RaZor]

So, are you saying if you don't seek medical care every couple of days you die? (caring for one's "health" is about lifestyle, not about seeing a doctor)

 

How did human beings survive to this point?

So I take it that you don't think that people should be able to go see a doctor at least once a year? Or is that just for those who are well off?

 

Sometimes it is better to go (for certain types of risks for some people) instead of falling for a "drug campaign" - that is often perpetuated by big pharma on our society.

 

If you have young (pre-teen/teen) daughter(s), you might want to watch this and pay attention to the last part (after 7:20).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoyRYSoSJk

[RangerM]

I can use all the praying for me I can get. Still doesn't mean I will get it right.

Then I hope you wake up tomorrow feeling good about yourself, and hopeful for the future.

 

None of us get it right most of the time. It's how we respond to getting it wrong that defines what kind of people we are.

[RangerM]

So I take it that you don't think that people should be able to go see a doctor at least once a year? Or is that just for those who are well off?

 

Sometimes it is better to go (for certain types of risks for some people) instead of falling for a "drug campaign" - that is often perpetuated by big pharma on our society.

 

If you have young (pre-teen/teen) daughter(s), you might want to watch this and pay attention to the last part (after 7:20).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoyRYSoSJk

Although I was already familiar, I appreciate the info on the HPV vaccine.

 

My choice of words, "How did human beings survive to this point?" was a poor choice. Speaking for myself, I don't need a doctor within arm's length at all times. I don't believe any regular (and healthy) person does. Those with chonic disease fine, but they are the exception. My point was that you don't have to live in an urban setting to have access to a doctor. There are many doctors/healthcare facilities within a few minutes of most people I'm familiar with. It was always like that, even where we were in WV. The nice thing about WV, was that more often than not, the doctor would come to you.

 

I also didn't infer (that I know of) that people shouldn't have a checkup every so often. I do (although not as often as my wife would prefer). And it isn't now, nor should it be exclusive to the wealthy. I'm not sure what you mean by that anyway. Everyone has access. It's just not everyone has insurance, and that can have an impact on the quality they receive. But for many people, insurance isn't a priority, until it's too late.

 

But, I'll let you in on something. As you know, I'm pretty Conservative on matters of Government. However in my personal life, I'm actually more of a bleeding heart than you may think. Everyone in my company (including their spouses and children) receives full medical coverage, as a company-paid benefit (the employee pays nothing other than co-pays and modest deductibles). We made the mistake a few years ago of allowing a couple of our low-end employees to opt out (for higher pay), and when one of them got hurt (off the job), it pretty much bankrupted him, and was very disruptive to our business. Now we give no one the choice. We can't afford to have employees worrying about themselves or their family's medical care. We consider it good business, but it is our choice.

 

Now you know. Yes, I'm a bleeding heart, but only in my personal life. I am vehemently against Obamacare or any other government intrusion into our private business, or my employees' private lives. I can't fathom I could ever be convinced otherwise.

Edited April 24, 2009 by RangerM

[RaZor]

Hmmm - that's not being a bleeding heart -- that's just good business. I did the same when I had a couple different businesses - with lots of employees. Depending on what kind of business one is in - it sometimes is real difficult to do that tho' -- ever since 1986 - when things changed drastically in the health insurance industry. In some industries it became more difficult with each year. Every year it became harder and harder to do just that as fewer and fewer of the competition even offered coverage - which puts one in a precarious position in terms of being competitive.

 

But stuff happens and a healthy employee is a better employee and I always bvelieved in taking care of my employees.

[RangerM]

Hmmm - that's not being a bleeding heart -- that's just good business. I did the same when I had a couple different businesses - with lots of employees. Depending on what kind of business one is in - it sometimes is real difficult to do that tho' -- ever since 1986 - when things changed drastically in the health insurance industry. In some industries it became more difficult with each year. Every year it became harder and harder to do just that as fewer and fewer of the competition even offered coverage - which puts one in a precarious position in terms of being competitive.

 

But stuff happens and a healthy employee is a better employee and I always bvelieved in taking care of my employees.

One man's bleeding heart is another's smart business man. It depends on perspective.

 

I work in an industry with a fairly high turnover, so to be competitive, it is the happy medium between the lowest price and the most skilled workforce. We've found what works for us and our customers (who appreciate seeing the same faces year after year).

 

The important thing (to me) is that we keep the decisions under our roof.

[Critic]

My choice of words, "How did human beings survive to this point?" was a poor choice. Speaking for myself, I don't need a doctor within arm's length at all times. I don't believe any regular (and healthy) person does. Those with chonic disease fine, but they are the exception. My point was that you don't have to live in an urban setting to have access to a doctor. There are many doctors/healthcare facilities within a few minutes of most people I'm familiar with. It was always like that, even where we were in WV. The nice thing about WV, was that more often than not, the doctor would come to you.

 

About 20 miles N. on WV St Rd. 10, down in a holler I have 5 acres of land. And down in that holler, I buried my Grandmother. I would awaken with her and walk to the small whole log barn and watch her sit and milk ol Betsy and drink in the rich aroma of that barn. I watched how the mines closed and then steel died off. And working men who use to tunnel all day and had some pride in a hard days work were suddenly out of work with no more prospects. And my Aunts kids, all 7 or 8 of them would always seem to be shoeless, but also filled with joy. The joy of that comes with being in a large family and having to interact with people.

 

Not much has really changed in that holler, hopefully the baptist preachers have changed the cadence of their fiery damnation. She had the only house in that holler that had running water. Now the gravel road is paved, but the hillsides are still the sand I liked. You can raise chickens, but you need some grain, you can pasture a cow, but to subsist you need other items, you need electricity to pump that water. I can't grow crops on the mountain side to can for all year, and I can't grow cotton,... we just need each other. Now in Idaho, you can't just go a few miles to the nearest doctor.. they all want to make BIG money and become successful, and that is something you will rarely find in a small town.

 

My dad was in the CCC and even that wasn't a great way to live, but it kept some people alive. To move on, the Army looked good, and that man could drive nails with a rifle. Then WWII happened. I was in the house and heard his own sister tell him " Well we didn't think you would make it back", when he found out he wasn't in his own mothers will. He never did this, but I just about had tears in my eyes for him when I wrote that. My own Birth Certificate says he was employed by Chrysler, but what I remember is him not working there. He was in Heating and A/C. My mom told him to get a real job, because of the layoff's he was going thru. To his last day, he always bought a Chrysler. I did a few years at Chrysler and a few years at GM myself. I've seen men work hard in those factories. I still have back pain myself from wanting to do a good job of moving 22 tons of steel in less than 6 hours by hand for just 3 days til it locked up my back and the foreman was on me for not keeping up. Come to find out, it was suppose to have been a 2 man job, and he put me as the only one doing it. It took the company doctor to keep that man off of me. They don't care.

 

We each do a different job, we're all interdependent on each other. I wanted to live like an island myself, but with age. I see where I actually do need people. MY marriage gets stronger each day now, as I become more appreciative of my wife. I married very very late, because I once was so poor. I made sure my family came first. And I .. well.. I knew we could find a common ground Ranger.. see even your thoughts have now affected me.. I want to advocate for that salt of the earth person, the one that has to work for someone else each day. because on his own, he won't make it.

 

Edit: 20 mi. N. of Huntington and moving that steel.. that was like 3 months after having been off work for 7 months because my back was broke and I had no medical when that happened. I was hit head-on driving to work on day 91 of returning to Ford and you had to have 6 months in before you got medical. Yes I had something like $35K of doctor bills for 8 days in the hospital until they found out I had no medical - told me I would be there 30 days, but somehow I must have convinced them I would follow orders and they let me go home.

Edited April 24, 2009 by Critic

[RangerM]

My Grandpa (95) is still in Roane County. Grandma passed in 1998. Mom and Dad moved back there a couple of years ago. (but they still keep a house in Charleston)

 

Grandpa's primary business was chickens/eggs, sheep, and cattle (for beef mostly, but he always kept at least one dairy cow, like all farmers usually do). The crops always went to feed us.

 

We had it pretty good. Ate well, and I'm too young (39) to have lived without electricity or plumbing (albeit one bathroom). Grandpaw had a gas well on his property that heats his home to this day (those old sit-on-the-floor refractory stoves). I only had one uncle in the mine. The rest of us moved away when I was very young. We came to N.C. when I was 6.

 

To this day, I find the smells of the pasture (cow-pies and all) strangely alluring. I guess it's either nostalgia or just weird.

[mustang_sallad]

Ya this got way off topic... What was your point about people living in the city depending on stuff that comes from the country? Pretty obvious isn't it? I don't think you're suggesting that cities be destroyed and their populations spread evenly across the land... Are you saying that high speed trains are bad because they don't help people living in the country side?

[RangerM]

Ya this got way off topic... What was your point about people living in the city depending on stuff that comes from the country? Pretty obvious isn't it? I don't think you're suggesting that cities be destroyed and their populations spread evenly across the land... Are you saying that high speed trains are bad because they don't help people living in the country side?

 

No, I'm not now, nor was I ever, suggesting the cities be destroyed. I was responding to DUCKRACER's statement about BO's (apparent) desire to cripple the nation with oppressive taxes on anything/everything that uses carbon (ie oil). I assert that it would come back to bite the city-dwellers in the @$$, even though the city-dwellers believe that because they don't go to the gas station to fill up a car, they can't (or won't) be hurt by those taxes.

 

My argument with high speed trains is that peoples' desire for them doesn't match the actual price they will have to pay for a ticket, to support them and I shouldn't be forced to pay taxes to subsidize something I won't use. If trains have to be subsidized NOW, by what logic is it that they won't have to be subsidized then? If the answer is, "They will have to be subsidized", I'll just say "No, thanks".

Edited April 24, 2009 by RangerM

[joihan777]

But I just can't stand to see constant remarks about how people's lives are just dictated by their own actions. Life isn't that simple.

I beg to differ. Obviously there is usually no "one" reason why people are at a certain place in life, but I know that people's actions (or inactions) have real consequences. From fervently pursueing a higher education, regardless of one's color or station, to deciding NOT to "party" with one's friends and instead achieving success in a seemingly lonely manner.

 

My parents came to this country with a $100 between them and now live the American dream, regardless of the obstacles they encountered. It's called 'ganas' and ganas means your actions do indeed dictate your fate. Like it or not.

 

Politics are formed very early in life, and it seems to be a life-long situation where you stay in your thinking.

No way. I grew up in public education with every darn stinkin' teacher telling me how evil, selfish, lizardlike and elitist the Republicans were. They crammed their stupidity down our throats, without our parents knowlegde of course, until most of us believed it. It took collegiate level analytical skills and a better understanding of history to 'undo' the crap the left-wing pigs of teachers we had taught us. The truth didn't dawn on me until my early twenties... as did many of my friends. So I'm just going to tell you you are flat wrong Critic. Maybe your statement holds true for you, but it certainly is not the only way. Funny how what my left-winger pigs of teachers taught me about conservatives is exactly how I see the hypocritical liberals.

 

NOW BACK TO TOPIC: Last night I watched a show about TRAINS on cable and the highest speed train LEGALLY allowed in the USA can only due 150 MPH. I personally think it's folly to pursue a country-wide passenger high speed rail system.

As a Californian, I presume an earthquake resistant elevated track would allow faster speeds for the longer sections of the routes. In Japan the high speeds are only in certain areas too. In densely populated areas the trains still go quickly, just not at top speed.

 

Believe me, a bullet train going through Kern County, CA at 200mph wouldn't even freak out the cows!

[joihan777]

I want to know who the 35% are that think its easy.

 

I don't say this in any cynical capacity, but because it shouldn't be easy. If you want to be better off, its going to take a lot of hard work. If there were no adversity, there wouldn't be a reward.

 

I think it's easy to get ahead. VERY EASY. It just takes clear goals, determination, resolve and willpower. It takes perserverance and cooperation in your family too. Dedication and loyalty to one's aspirations are required as this takes some time, depending on how long of a route you are planning to undertake. It helps to have someone encouraging you along the way.

 

Only in this country, the most beautiful United States Of America, can I say these things with a true expectation of succeeding.

 

That being said, none of these values are found in abundance in the entitlement mindset, which is why all the government theft handouts in the world will still fail to enrich people permanently. It takes character, something handouts utterly fail to provide (something the democrat politicians know but are willing to ignore so long as they are in charge).

Edited April 25, 2009 by joihan777