Only if the federal government paid for it, and they won't for the reasons I mentioned. No use catering to a vote they already have.

I don't like it any more than you do, but it's a massive side effect of the way our government works. Swing states are the only things that matter and none of them are in need of high speed rail

It's functional in that people can get from point A to point B when they need to. Flights aren't prohibitively expensive enough to push people to take the tax increase. A flight from Minneapolis to Chicago is like $100-$200, and for the rare occurrence someone needs that specific route, it's not that expensive to pay for.

Don't get me wrong, we'd be much better off with a national rail network connecting major cities. But Americans are some of the most cost-averse voters, both on the left and right. And you're looking at a multi-billion dollar project for something like a Chicago to NYC line. The citizens of Illinois and NYC aren't keen to take the tax hike. Fed won't pay for it since it only benefits 2 specific voter bases and doesn't do anything to swing an election (Dems win those cities anyway, Republicans will never take them over even if they funded rail).

I personally agree, but the voter base doesn't. People are unwilling to take the tax increase over taking a flight for the rare occurrence they go between the two cities. And the issue is getting INTO the city, not near the city. Once you hit the suburbs of either city you're fucked. Not that it can't be done, but the price tag skyrockets and that makes it a harder pill for voters to swallow.

The problem isn't that it can't happen, the problem is people won't vote to pay more in taxes. Left or right, we've shown that any candidate that runs on increasing taxes gets slaughtered because the voter base is too short sighted. New rail is incredibly expensive, taxes would need to be increased to pay for it (the money HAS to come from somewhere).

It's "functional" in that people can get from Chicago to NYC relatively quickly - through a flight. Sure, it's gonna cost a few hundred $$ a person, but it's not enough of a barrier to get people to pay significantly more in taxes for a few years to pay for an alternative.

The federal government isn't going to step in and do something like this ever either. They're the only ones who could even conceivably do this, but spending billions for 2 specific states doesn't sway voters from the other 48.

The biggest issue is that it's expensive and what we have now is functional. People aren't keen on dropping tons of cash to make something better because they're short-sighted and don't care about the future.

Also NIMBY's would shut it down hard, not wanting to live near the rail. There'd also be a lot of eminent domain claims when the rail would get close to any station point.

Back when the US had excellent rail networks, we could have upgraded and maintained them for passenger rail. But so much has been ripped out and paved over that it'd be very expensive to bring it back... and no one wants to pay more in taxes despite receiving more money back in benefit.

Ironically, this is the "sell the shovel" situation from the gold rush, but in Gold's favor this time. Chip rush!

They genuinely believe they're identifying and defeating a mass fraud conspiracy. Fox News and worse have done a phenomenal job of building echo chambers that convince them the libs are a bunch of cheating charlatans and that's the only reason they have the popular vote.

Their worldview is completely wrapped around this and so anything to the contrary is ignored as evidence of the conspiracy.

This is the heart of the plan. Postal delays ensuring these votes won't be counted. Nothing "illegal" about "incompetence".

Can we remove the Copilot integration into fucking everything next?

You've hit the nail on the head with the Infinite Growth statement. Most companies see AI as the next way to cut bottom line costs and hit those annual goals. It's an ouroboros that most companies haven't seen the end of yet. Eventually they'll be left with no talent (arguably the most valuable thing a company can acquire) and uninteresting products nobody is interested in.

How do you train newbies into useful employees when you let AI handle the easy stuff. Where's your pipeline of promotions so you're developing your next generation of developers? Once the shit starts to hit the fan, you'll see them crumble and ask how we got here. Human talent takes YEARS to cultivate and is extremely hard to buy, especially when competition builds from reducing the supply when people stop going into these fields for lack of entry-level jobs.

Jeff Hays is the GOAT of audiobook narration!

There's a reason they removed "Don't be Evil" from their corporate tenets. The almighty dollar comes first to them and they refuse to risk angering The Orange One.