Trains.com

Will lower oil prices due to new findings mean that Passenger/Transit use be decreased ?

6636 views
127 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    November 2005
  • 4,190 posts
Posted by wanswheel on Thursday, December 1, 2016 5:58 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

1 acre and 4,000 sq ft 1901 Queen Anne in rural

Can I have it when you're done with it?

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Southwest US
  • 12,914 posts
Posted by tomikawaTT on Thursday, December 1, 2016 5:37 PM

Ulrich

The OPEC countries and others can collude to cut supply, thereby driving up the price.. thereby causing everyone to pay more at the pump. and the media I listen to call that a win win. Let's try that in other markets, like transportation by having the large rail carriers agree to cut supply. Let's also allow food distributors to limit the supply of food.. so that a  $3.49  loaf of bread becomes a $6.85 loaf of bread. Maybe allow supply and demand to set prices.. let the poor consumer win once in awhile. Colluding to control available supply is tantamount to price fixing.. I guess that's become ok now.

According to OPEC, it has been OK ever since they got together to do it.

Cartels of industries can be, and have been, subject to anti-trust action.  Hard to enforce that US law when the colluders are corporations owned and run by sovereign states.  After all, they aren't meeting in New York or Washington when they scheme to screw the world...

My hope is that some mad scientist will collude with a sane engineer and invent a gadget that completely does away with the need to burn petroleum products for energy.  The market for chemical feed stocks is a bare shadow of the energy market.

(Holdeth not thy breath.  According to my unpublished History of the Confederation of Galactic Civilizations, the first practical mass converter will be used to power the first human starship.  It will be about the size of a marine main diesel.  Scaling it down to fit in a wheeled vehicle will take a couple of centuries of development.)

Chuck (bemused sometime SF writer)

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Guelph, Ontario
  • 4,819 posts
Posted by Ulrich on Thursday, December 1, 2016 5:00 PM

The OPEC countries and others can collude to cut supply, thereby driving up the price.. thereby causing everyone to pay more at the pump. and the media I listen to call that a win win. Let's try that in other markets, like transportation by having the large rail carriers agree to cut supply. Let's also allow food distributors to limit the supply of food.. so that a  $3.49  loaf of bread becomes a $6.85 loaf of bread. Maybe allow supply and demand to set prices.. let the poor consumer win once in awhile. Colluding to control available supply is tantamount to price fixing.. I guess that's become ok now.  

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, December 1, 2016 4:53 PM

So how did my response attack anyone? I simply disagreed with the idea that anyone could or should be "told" where to live.

Trust me, I'm done.

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 8,221 posts
Posted by Euclid on Thursday, December 1, 2016 4:47 PM

BaltACD

Oil & fuel prices have very little if any relations to the reality of the costs of production and distribution.

OPEC announced yesterday they have agreed to limit production January 1, 2017.  Today my local gas price jumped from $2.13 to $2.25.  Not one ounce of oil that is affected by the production limits is in the world distribution pipeline.  What we end up paying is purest of a speculation market.  Charge what you think the hype machine will give you cover to hide behind.

We should know all about hiding behind hype and keeping reality buried.

 

There is nothing unfair about speculation.  It is not about hype.  It is about risking your hard earned money for investing in future outcomes.  If you see a rosy outlook, you invest a lot.  If the outlook is gloomy, you invest little. 

The common cited idea that it is unfair for a gas station owner to raise the price of gas in his storage tank and already paid for is economic nonsense.  The real value of that gasoline changes as expectations of the future supply changes.  It is normal supply and demand.    

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 9,610 posts
Posted by schlimm on Thursday, December 1, 2016 4:45 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

 

 
CandOforprogress2

Well...I just took Amtrak from Buffalo NY to Syracuse  NYfor 30.00 I dont think I could drive for less. and I got a nap. This is about behavoir modfication or social engineering. At what point do we make people move in closer to downtown and walk/bike/take the bus or train. Cheaper Oil makes that harder. Europe with its socialist model saw driving as a luxury to be taxed and Americans saw driving and the freedom of travel as there birthright.

 

 

 

My work is not "downtown", where do you propose to "make" me live?

Such a statement is either intended to bait responses, or shows the depth of the divide in this culture today.

To even consider the idea that the government, or anyone, could tell people where to live goes against every principle this nation was founded on.

Can I buy you a ticket to the Socialist country of your choice?

"The universal misery of capitalism is the unequal distribution of the blessings..the universal blessing of socialism is the equal distribution of the misery" - Winston Churchill

Sheldon

 

So now, whenever someone says something you do not like or understand, you attack his character with your McCarthyite smear tactics. There is no place for ideologues here.  Take it to one of the alt.right or Ayn Randian websites.  CandO was not telling you where to live.  You misread.

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, December 1, 2016 4:44 PM

schlimm

 

 
Paul Milenkovic
I suppose you would label all of that "self-evident conspiracy theories"?  Before criticizing people for not being well-read, a person could freshen up their own reading

 

Paul:  Diverting more long haul truck traffic to the rails is great.  But where Atlantic Central derailed was in stating this socialist conspiracy gem:  [Climate change mitigation] "is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose."

 

 

Not a conspiracy, just a defacto agenda of those who believe they should be able to tell me how to live, and who think socialism will work........

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 9,610 posts
Posted by schlimm on Thursday, December 1, 2016 4:39 PM

Paul Milenkovic
I suppose you would label all of that "self-evident conspiracy theories"?  Before criticizing people for not being well-read, a person could freshen up their own reading

Paul:  Diverting more long haul truck traffic to the rails is great.  But where Atlantic Central derailed was in stating this socialist conspiracy gem:  [Climate change mitigation] "is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose."

 

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, December 1, 2016 4:14 PM

CandOforprogress2

Well...I just took Amtrak from Buffalo NY to Syracuse  NYfor 30.00 I dont think I could drive for less. and I got a nap. This is about behavoir modfication or social engineering. At what point do we make people move in closer to downtown and walk/bike/take the bus or train. Cheaper Oil makes that harder. Europe with its socialist model saw driving as a luxury to be taxed and Americans saw driving and the freedom of travel as there birthright.

 

My work is not "downtown", where do you propose to "make" me live?

Such a statement is either intended to bait responses, or shows the depth of the divide in this culture today.

To even consider the idea that the government, or anyone, could tell people where to live goes against every principle this nation was founded on.

Can I buy you a ticket to the Socialist country of your choice?

"The universal misery of capitalism is the unequal distribution of the blessings..the universal blessing of socialism is the equal distribution of the misery" - Winston Churchill

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, December 1, 2016 4:08 PM

Oil & fuel prices have very little if any relations to the reality of the costs of production and distribution.

OPEC announced yesterday they have agreed to limit production January 1, 2017.  Today my local gas price jumped from $2.13 to $2.25.  Not one ounce of oil that is affected by the production limits is in the world distribution pipeline.  What we end up paying is purest of a speculation market.  Charge what you think the hype machine will give you cover to hide behind.

We should know all about hiding behind hype and keeping reality buried.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • 1,568 posts
Posted by CandOforprogress2 on Thursday, December 1, 2016 3:10 PM

Ulrich

Same story here in the Greater Toronto Area. Car ownership is fine, but time has value also. Some of my neighbours spend three hours a day driving to and from work.. Using the GO train instead would at least give them the opportunity to do get some work or reading done in that time instead. 

 

Would love to take GO train from Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY to Toronto. With the new Niagara Falls NY Train Station it might be sooner.

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • 1,568 posts
Posted by CandOforprogress2 on Thursday, December 1, 2016 3:08 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

Well I have no problem with Rural America....Its the cookie cutter pink houses and the souless strip malls of souless suberban America that I cant stand. Its gets to the point of everywhere is looking like everywhere else. Why Travel?

 

 
Paul Milenkovic

 

 
schlimm
 

Metaphor.  And try reading some actual science instead of sounding like Reagan-lite.

 

 

 

 

And if we accept the danger of adding carbon to the atmosphere affecting climate in an adverse way, even if only as a precautionary principle, how are passenger trains (Amtrak at .1 percent of total US passenger miles, rail transit, if I remember correctly at 1 percent) in the U.S. going to put a dent in transportation carbon emissions?

We had a talk at the U by an Electrical Engineer from Utah State who wants to electrify the Interstate Highway System.  Yes, the Interstate Highways.

What this would do is to allow battery-electric cars and especially battery-electric trucks to have much smaller on-board batteries because they would be continually recharged from inductive coils in the roadway.  This reduction in the required battery size is of special importance to long-haul trucks.  Electrification of the Interstate Highways in this manner would be particularly cost effective in achieving carbon reduction, especially on account of the high percentage of long-distance truck traffic on the Interstates.

This is a series proposal backed up by DOE and major corporate funding.

http://power.usu.edu/

 

 

 

It would be much cheaper, and likely more effective to simply create the necessary incentives to get most/all long distance truck traffic on to intermodal rail, using trucks only for local/regional delivery.

The other benifit of this would be dramatic safety improvements on the highways since most of the people in the little cars have no idea how to drive among the big trucks (side bar - trucks are in a disproportionally high number of crashes, but truck drivers are seldom found at fault). And just like "The Pushcart War", there seems to be no limit to the trucks getting larger, heavier and harder to maneuver.

They should have deregulated rates/territories for trains and trucks in 1953, limited the truck trailers to 35' or 40', kept them at 50,000 lbs, and the railroads and the trucking companies would have put all the long distance traffic on flat cars six decades ago - like they tried to then.......

The train is more ton/mile efficient by what factor? 6x?, 10x? Look at all that oil saved.......

Get the trucks off the roads, then maybe the people in the cars that you all think should ride trains would not be as big of a deal........

There are no trains that will take me and my construction tools to a job side - only my F250 can do that........

Rather than sitting in an office and manipulating wealth, I actually create it by building stuff........

Yes the climate is changing, it has changed many times before, but there is no hard proof we are the primary cause.....and even less proof that we can effectively change its course.....it is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose.

Suburban sprawl - I could stop suburban sprawl with a simple tax law change. Rather than taxing property based on market value, tax it on a flat rate regionally by the acre of land and the sq footage of buildings. So the one acre lot with the 4000 sq ft house would be taxed the same anywhere in the region, city or suburb.

No more incentive to run away from high urban taxes for low suburban taxes, less incentive for "demolition by neglect" in the cities if taxes are not lowered by poor maintenance, more incentive to maintain and revitalize or loose it to a tax sale to someone who will reinvest.

Why should slum lords only pay taxes on a $50,000 value while collecting high rents, while hard working people in the suburbs pay taxes on a $250,000 value for the same size property? Then you could give low income homeowners and retired people a homestead credit.........

You want to stop urban decay?, create jobs?, stop crime?, rebuild the cities?, get people to stop commuting long distances?, read Adam Smith's book, get the government out of the way and make the tax system fair - the ship will right itself.

Rant over,

Still happy to live in "rural" America.......

Sheldon

 

RME
  • Member since
    March 2016
  • 2,073 posts
Posted by RME on Thursday, December 1, 2016 2:20 PM

Paul Milenkovic
What Pratt and Whitney engineer Michael McCune did was invent a practical form of the quill drive from a GG-1 to be light enough and small enough to fit in a jet engine.

I assume you mean the ability of the GG1 quill arrangement to absorb wheel shock and movement while maintaining gear alignment ... but the gears in that arrangement are all encased in rigid alignment, so much of the value of the PurePower arrangement is really novel.  There are other significant problems that contributed to the "30 year development time".  A quick perusal of the discussion section of the patent is quite instructive.

Note that, while there's an extensive literature on superfinishing lightweight gears to take the required power loads, there's comparatively little on structures that keep the gears in proper mesh under loads when the engine case itself deforms, or that restore the gears to correct geometry after transient, possibly severe, distortion. 

Might bear (no pun intended, but it's pretty funny) comparison with the arrangement for the multiple-speed prop drive on the Tu-95 (which I think had comparable inertia loading but was not internal to the turboshaft engine).

  • Member since
    May 2005
  • From: S.E. South Dakota
  • 13,569 posts
Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:55 PM

selector

Well, this if fun!

 

In a weird sort of way.Mischief

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 1,486 posts
Posted by Victrola1 on Thursday, December 1, 2016 11:46 AM

SACRAMENTO (AP) — California’s Legislature has approved regulations on cow flatulence and manure – both blamed for releasing greenhouse gases. 

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/09/01/cow-fart-regulations-approved-by-californias-legislature/

So much for the ox cart option. 

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • 2,741 posts
Posted by Paul Milenkovic on Thursday, December 1, 2016 11:46 AM

schlimm
 
ATLANTIC CENTRAL

 

 
schlimm

 

 
ATLANTIC CENTRAL
Yes the climate is changing, it has changed many times before, but there is no hard proof we are the primary cause.....and even less proof that we can effectively change its course.....it is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose.

 

"Paranoia runs deep; into your life it will creep."  Meanwhile you worship at the altar of what you claim Adam Smith wrote.  Obviously you've never read Wealth of Nations or anything else he wrote.

 

 

 

And therein lies the problem with these kinds of topics on these sound bite forums. My post was already too long, and I failed to cover all my points effectively, allowing you to make assumptions about facts not in evidence.

I full well know that what Adam Smith had to say was far more complex than the topics I covered, fact remains what he talked about is not where we are today or where we are headed.

On that note I will end my comments.............

Sheldon

 

 

 

Your conspiracy theories are self-evident.  Q.E.D.

 

The dude wants to do two things.  One, place greater emphasis on getting the heavy long-haul truck traffic diverted to intermodal.  Is this something you disagree with? 

The other is that he is advocating for the "tax land not property improvement" ideas of Henry George.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George

Among his intellectual legacy is advocacy for:

  • to dramatically reduce the size of the military,
  • to replace contract patronage with the direct employment of government workers, with civil-service protections,
  • to build and maintain free mass transportation and libraries,[62]
  • to extend suffrage to women,[63] and even to have one house of Congress entirely male and the other entirely female,
  • to implement campaign finance reform and political spending restrictions.

I suppose you would label all of that "self-evident conspiracy theories"?  Before criticizing people for not being well-read, a person could freshen up their own reading.

If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • 2,741 posts
Posted by Paul Milenkovic on Thursday, December 1, 2016 11:34 AM

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-15/pratt-s-purepower-gtf-jet-engine-innovation-took-almost-30-years

What Pratt and Whitney engineer Michael McCune did was invent a practical form of the quill drive from a GG-1 to be light enough and small enough to fit in a jet engine.  This innovation will probably save fuel and reduce carbon emissions by more than anything that will be done with passenger rail in the US in our lifetimes.

 

If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, December 1, 2016 10:17 AM

Dinner

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Thursday, December 1, 2016 10:08 AM

Well, this if fun!

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 9,610 posts
Posted by schlimm on Thursday, December 1, 2016 9:54 AM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

 

 
schlimm

 

 
ATLANTIC CENTRAL
Yes the climate is changing, it has changed many times before, but there is no hard proof we are the primary cause.....and even less proof that we can effectively change its course.....it is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose.

 

"Paranoia runs deep; into your life it will creep."  Meanwhile you worship at the altar of what you claim Adam Smith wrote.  Obviously you've never read Wealth of Nations or anything else he wrote.

 

 

 

And therein lies the problem with these kinds of topics on these sound bite forums. My post was already too long, and I failed to cover all my points effectively, allowing you to make assumptions about facts not in evidence.

I full well know that what Adam Smith had to say was far more complex than the topics I covered, fact remains what he talked about is not where we are today or where we are headed.

On that note I will end my comments.............

Sheldon

 

Your conspiracy theories are self-evident.  Q.E.D.

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, December 1, 2016 9:49 AM

schlimm

 

 
ATLANTIC CENTRAL
Yes the climate is changing, it has changed many times before, but there is no hard proof we are the primary cause.....and even less proof that we can effectively change its course.....it is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose.

 

"Paranoia runs deep; into your life it will creep."  Meanwhile you worship at the altar of what you claim Adam Smith wrote.  Obviously you've never read Wealth of Nations or anything else he wrote.

 

And therein lies the problem with these kinds of topics on these sound bite forums. My post was already too long, and I failed to cover all my points effectively, allowing you to make assumptions about facts not in evidence.

I full well know that what Adam Smith had to say was far more complex than the topics I covered, fact remains what he talked about is not where we are today or where we are headed.

On that note I will end my comments.............

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    June 2009
  • From: Dallas, TX
  • 6,952 posts
Posted by CMStPnP on Thursday, December 1, 2016 9:16 AM

Well the Mo-Pac freeway in Austin gets pretty complicated in areas but never 26 lanes that is pretty wide.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 9,610 posts
Posted by schlimm on Thursday, December 1, 2016 8:34 AM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL
Yes the climate is changing, it has changed many times before, but there is no hard proof we are the primary cause.....and even less proof that we can effectively change its course.....it is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose.

"Paranoia runs deep; into your life it will creep."  Meanwhile you worship at the altar of what you claim Adam Smith wrote.  Obviously you've never read Wealth of Nations or anything else he wrote.

A nation on the downslope is one that demonizes or devalues scientists and their research.

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 6,199 posts
Posted by Miningman on Thursday, December 1, 2016 8:16 AM

Wanswheel- Thanks for that...of course few teach this natural process and geological process and the man made capture process is always 'buried" somewhere...when science does not fit the narrative it gets swept off the table quite deliberately. It is a very promising technology that works. 

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, December 1, 2016 7:39 AM

edblysard
MidlandMike
edblysard

 

IH10 in Houston is 26 lanes wide..

Is that the one also known as the Katy Freeway?

yup

With 26 lanes, that is probably more tracks than the Katy had in their yard in the area.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • 4,190 posts
Posted by wanswheel on Thursday, December 1, 2016 1:14 AM

2008 article, "In situ carbonation of peridotite for CO2 storage"

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/45/17295.full.pdf

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 6,199 posts
Posted by Miningman on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 11:58 PM

Wanswheel et all- High CO2 levels in the atmosphere react chemically with peridotite, the original rock composed of the earths crust, and forms limestone, CaCO3. It is the earths self regulating mechanism but takes time. It is why there are huge thick limestone deposits all over the earth. There is now a process where we can duplicate this capture converting CO2 to CaCO3 limestone, which entombs and changes  the CO2 into solid rock, in vast quantities, in 3 years!  You can find scientific articles on this, the latest reporting one is from the National Post but you have to pay to get that one. 

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • 9,265 posts
Posted by edblysard on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 11:53 PM

MidlandMike
 
edblysard

 

IH10 in Houston is 26 lanes wide..

 

 

 

Is that the one also known as the Katy Freeway?

 

yup

 

23 17 46 11

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Georgia USA SW of Atlanta
  • 11,919 posts
Posted by blue streak 1 on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 10:52 PM

BaltACD

IH10 in Houston is 26 lanes wide..what excessive does he mean?

Guess that beats I-75 north of Atlanta only 24 lanes

 

And we all know how well Saudi Arabia and Russia adhere to limits! (not when they can make more money by exceeding them).

Neither can be trusted for anything, especially when money is inolved.

 

 
Balt quite correct.  Also might be Saudi  in a snit over the law suit law passed by congress,
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 10:41 PM

Paul Milenkovic

 

 
schlimm
 

Metaphor.  And try reading some actual science instead of sounding like Reagan-lite.

 

 

 

 

And if we accept the danger of adding carbon to the atmosphere affecting climate in an adverse way, even if only as a precautionary principle, how are passenger trains (Amtrak at .1 percent of total US passenger miles, rail transit, if I remember correctly at 1 percent) in the U.S. going to put a dent in transportation carbon emissions?

We had a talk at the U by an Electrical Engineer from Utah State who wants to electrify the Interstate Highway System.  Yes, the Interstate Highways.

What this would do is to allow battery-electric cars and especially battery-electric trucks to have much smaller on-board batteries because they would be continually recharged from inductive coils in the roadway.  This reduction in the required battery size is of special importance to long-haul trucks.  Electrification of the Interstate Highways in this manner would be particularly cost effective in achieving carbon reduction, especially on account of the high percentage of long-distance truck traffic on the Interstates.

This is a series proposal backed up by DOE and major corporate funding.

http://power.usu.edu/

 

It would be much cheaper, and likely more effective to simply create the necessary incentives to get most/all long distance truck traffic on to intermodal rail, using trucks only for local/regional delivery.

The other benifit of this would be dramatic safety improvements on the highways since most of the people in the little cars have no idea how to drive among the big trucks (side bar - trucks are in a disproportionally high number of crashes, but truck drivers are seldom found at fault). And just like "The Pushcart War", there seems to be no limit to the trucks getting larger, heavier and harder to maneuver.

They should have deregulated rates/territories for trains and trucks in 1953, limited the truck trailers to 35' or 40', kept them at 50,000 lbs, and the railroads and the trucking companies would have put all the long distance traffic on flat cars six decades ago - like they tried to then.......

The train is more ton/mile efficient by what factor? 6x?, 10x? Look at all that oil saved.......

Get the trucks off the roads, then maybe the people in the cars that you all think should ride trains would not be as big of a deal........

There are no trains that will take me and my construction tools to a job side - only my F250 can do that........

Rather than sitting in an office and manipulating wealth, I actually create it by building stuff........

Yes the climate is changing, it has changed many times before, but there is no hard proof we are the primary cause.....and even less proof that we can effectively change its course.....it is simply the "new religion" of the socialists so they can control us.........by telling us how to live and stealing our wealth to pay for "saving the planet" and to prevent us from living as we choose.

Suburban sprawl - I could stop suburban sprawl with a simple tax law change. Rather than taxing property based on market value, tax it on a flat rate regionally by the acre of land and the sq footage of buildings. So the one acre lot with the 4000 sq ft house would be taxed the same anywhere in the region, city or suburb.

No more incentive to run away from high urban taxes for low suburban taxes, less incentive for "demolition by neglect" in the cities if taxes are not lowered by poor maintenance, more incentive to maintain and revitalize or loose it to a tax sale to someone who will reinvest.

Why should slum lords only pay taxes on a $50,000 value while collecting high rents, while hard working people in the suburbs pay taxes on a $250,000 value for the same size property? Then you could give low income homeowners and retired people a homestead credit.........

You want to stop urban decay?, create jobs?, stop crime?, rebuild the cities?, get people to stop commuting long distances?, read Adam Smith's book, get the government out of the way and make the tax system fair - the ship will right itself.

Rant over,

Still happy to live in "rural" America.......

Sheldon

    

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy