Drop Dead Fred
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- Jun 6, 2020
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This New York Times article on the failure of California’s high speed rail reminds me of the chapter “The Moratorium on Brains” from Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged.
In that chapter from the fictional book, everyone on a passenger train died because the train was controlled by politics instead of common sense.
This new article from the New York Times explains how the real world train’s ridiculous, absurd, irrational route was chosen based on politics instead of on common sense.
The New York Times article states:
“… the design for the nation’s most ambitious infrastructure project was never based on the easiest or most direct route. Instead, the train’s path out of Los Angeles was diverted across a second mountain range to the rapidly growing suburbs of the Mojave Desert – a route whose most salient advantage appeared to be that it ran through the district of a powerful Los Angeles county supervisor.”
Wow. That’s just dumb.
The article then goes on to state many different reasons why the project is so far behind schedule, and so far over budget. These blunders are the result of decisions being made based on politics instead of on logic.
By comparison, look at the very successful high speed rail in other parts of the world, such as Japan and Western Europe. They designed and built their high speed rail systems based on logic and rational thinking, not politics.
You can read Rand’s entire novel for free at this link. The chapter that I mentioned begins on page 523.
https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/atlas-shrugged.pdf
Here’s the New York Times article:
How California’s Bullet Train Went Off the Rails
In that chapter from the fictional book, everyone on a passenger train died because the train was controlled by politics instead of common sense.
This new article from the New York Times explains how the real world train’s ridiculous, absurd, irrational route was chosen based on politics instead of on common sense.
The New York Times article states:
“… the design for the nation’s most ambitious infrastructure project was never based on the easiest or most direct route. Instead, the train’s path out of Los Angeles was diverted across a second mountain range to the rapidly growing suburbs of the Mojave Desert – a route whose most salient advantage appeared to be that it ran through the district of a powerful Los Angeles county supervisor.”
Wow. That’s just dumb.
The article then goes on to state many different reasons why the project is so far behind schedule, and so far over budget. These blunders are the result of decisions being made based on politics instead of on logic.
By comparison, look at the very successful high speed rail in other parts of the world, such as Japan and Western Europe. They designed and built their high speed rail systems based on logic and rational thinking, not politics.
You can read Rand’s entire novel for free at this link. The chapter that I mentioned begins on page 523.
https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/atlas-shrugged.pdf
Here’s the New York Times article:
How California’s Bullet Train Went Off the Rails
