QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan You should run for public office. That is a very excellent platform and should be implimented. I don't know why more people with the actual knowledge from first hand experience can't run for high office. I wish in the United States that you didn't have to be well off to run for government because sometimes the most qualified person for the job is the poorist who just so happens to have the experience, compassion and the I.Q to do it. In Canada it isn't so bad but I wouldn't say it was completely different than in the U.S. Look at Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada and owner of Canada Steamships.
TG3 LOOK ! LISTEN ! LIVE ! Remember the 3.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd I I'd like to see the RRs eventually on "normal" Social Security, too. But you'd have to grandfather current employees in some fashion in order to be fair.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd I I'd like to see the RRs eventually on "normal" Social Security, too. But you'd have to grandfather current employees in some fashion in order to be fair. Them's fighten words !!!!!!!! Randy
QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan I wonder if the railroads and states should join forces to put photo radar at crossings that way if someone goes through them than the picture of the licence plate is taken and the fine is in the mail.
QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill You want to do something? Here's what. Compel every entity, public, individual, and private, to internalize and capitalize their uncapitalized external costs instead of foisting them onto the taxpayer at large as they are doing now or will be in the future. Assume that any product dumped into the environment, whether it be fertilizer runoff, carbon dioxide, or household garbage, is now or will soon be an uncapitalized cost foisted onto the taxpayer, and require whomever is dumping it to either find a way to sequester it permanently, or quit doing it. Prohibit any company from employing anyone without paying their full health insurance costs of them and their dependents from day one, or better yet, simply nationalize the health care insurance system to get rid of all the useless bureaucracy and overhead of the health insurance industry, to avoid these costs being foisted onto the taxpayer. Prohibit any import of any good or service from any nation that doesn't go along with this, or pay an import duty that matches the costs the exporter is not capitalizing, to avoid circumvention of domestic law by consumers and businesses alike, because otherwise we'll all be cheating. Wipe out unearned capital transfers and their equivalent such as inheritances, legacy admissions to colleges, lotteries and games of chance, and hire, pay, promote, and admit solely on the basis of merit. Standardize the tests so there's no cheating. The market will reward those that can easily internalize their costs, and puni***hose that don't. Railroads having few externalized costs will be rewarded, trucking and some others will have to greatly retrench. There won't be much coal moving, but the passenger and general freight business will pick up. Plans like this are highly unpopular because they make it difficult to cheat the system. It will be hard to get really rich, really fast. It will mean the only way you can get ahead is by hard work and smart investing. It will eventually wipe out the really rich. Nah. No one would ever vote for that. We all cling to the fantasy that we'll be rich any day now. As Ted Rall says, "The definition of a poor person in America is someone who votes to cut the capital gains tax to prepare for the day they will win the lottery." But even a little bit of demanding that industries internalize their costs would help railroads.
QUOTE: Originally posted by railman Great. So as big brother cashes in on the red light runners, why stop at railroad crossings? Put the cameras everywhere? I mean, if you don't break the law, you'll have nothing to fear, right? Catch those litterbugs! Speeders? Automate cameras there, too. Install automatic sensors on cars that detect if you tailgate or forget to signal, and presto, within 60 days there's another letter in the mail from Big Bother. Let's join hands, and get on board the CAMERA TRAIN!!! all in the name of SAFETY!!! Privacy? Bah. That's SO 1776. This is 2004! Sorry if that got rolling a little bit. It's too late at night and I just read an article about those photo cop thingies at intersections.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan That makes sense. Not a bad reason for doing it.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan The following will not only help the railroad but it will help the general populace. 1/ Public Health Care. If the government pays for it that the businesses don't need to have health insurance and neither do people. This should include pharmacuticals and rehab. 2/ Regulate the pharmacutical companies. They charge too damn much for drugs than companies that sell the same thing only with a generic name. Pharmacetical companies must continue producing drugs that are needed for patience even with patience with rare diseases. Failure to do so and the pharmacutical company's patent on that product becomes invalid. 3/ Regulate the insurance company and make sure that their rates are reasonable as well as just. Failure to justify rate increases will result in government lowering them to an exceptable level to be determined by finacial commitee in Congress. Insurance companies that cancel insurance policies for unjustified reasons will be fined and some cases criminally charged as well as have a demarit point reduced on their licence to operate. 4/ Reduce rates on interests allowed to be charged by both credit companies and bank loans. 5/ Give tax adcentives to industries that choose to use rail either by intermodal, transloading or direct spur access. 6/ Give tax adcentive to trucking industries that choose to use rail either by intermodal or to operate transloading facilities. Also give tax adcentives for trucking industries to use domestic containers on chassis rather than conventional trailers 7/ Give tax adcentives to the railroad to increase capacity to accomidate demand. 8/ Pass legislation that gives STB the right to demand that railroads have to increase capacity for the good of the economy and to reduce bottlenecking. Give them the right to declared certain lines as Key Corridor Access. This allows for the prevention of abandonment and prevents mainline track, signals, and switches to removed. Gives the railroad a tax reduction on lines that are declared Key Corridor Access. Gives the railroads assistance of security and natural disaster relief on lines that are declared Key Corridor Access. 9/ Regulate the prices of fuel for railroads. Railroads must eliminate fuel surcharges. 10/ Start general public awearness of the importance of the rail industry. 11/ Enact legislation called the Quality Rail Service Act. This act would allow the railroad to charge whatever they want but the price must match the quality of service givin. 12/ Railroads must be encouraged to use transloading methods and open more of their own. 13/ Enact a law that prevents railroads in giving unrealistic forecasts and from reducing infrastructure in order to meet them. Protect railroads some how from Wall Street's demand on forecasts that are unrealistic and unachievable without making unwise reductions on infrastructure. 14/ No more class 1 mergers. Until railroads can demonstrate that they have the skill and the ability to manage what they already have in a way that benefits customers, employees and the general public, mergers will no longer be permited by any class of railroad.
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