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[quote user="schlimm"] [quote user="Bucyrus"]My point is that we, as a society, have to decide which are the most essential works to pay for collectively because we only have a limited amount of money as a group.  So when we consider which works to produce as a collective effort with public funds, we have to determine how much they are worth on average to the members of society who will pay for them.  It is the classic benefit per cost analysis.[/quote]  OK, that is very clearly stated.  So, for illustrative purposes, what would be some other examples (besides paying down the debt) of current or future "works" that have passed or you believe would pass that benefit cost analysis? Second, what is the basis for your conclusions regarding HSR not benefiting more than a small segment of our society? [/quote] Even though I believe we need a cost/benefit analysis, performing one for massive public works would be so complex that nobody would ever agree that it was accurate.  So we are left to our own individual beliefs about necessity, use, rider revenue, cost of operation, cost of construction, cost overruns, effect of politics on how money is spent, etc.  Moreover, performing a CBA for a public project is many times more complex than doing so for a private project.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> Unlike the private sector business ventures, any cost/benefit analysis in public sector projects is never tested by being held accountable after the project is built.  With public sector projects, the fulfilling of a real societal need is often somewhat of a pretext for simply building empires by growing government.    So public sector cost/benefit analysis is often used as a tool to sell the idea to the public, rather than as a tool to assess the actual economic performance or public need for the project.    Following that motive, public sector cost/benefit analyses are free to state the benefits as immeasurable platitudes such as improving quality of life, providing transportation choices, making the nation more competitive with the rest of the world, and showing our friends in Europe that we are not uncivilized.  <o:p></o:p> So I am only saying that we need a CBA because the advocacy pushing HSR seems oblivious to the cost or any measure of whether the cost is worth it.  Instead, HSR is regarded as simply being a fashion that we must have.   I can’t tell you why Europe or other countries have it.  But they have governments too that are eager to build their empires with the public’s money.   Maybe their citizens would be better off without HSR.  I would submit that at the rate this county is presently going into debt while the economy is performing so poorly, hardly any public sector project satisfies a cost/benefit analysis, and certainly not HSR.
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