Bullshit. They have power over everyone that works for them. I love the "don't like your pay? Get another job" stuff...and you call a more progressive viewpoint a "utopian" one? I think your "everyone should be a businessman" one as asinine as it gets.
You see, you guys are under this strange delusion that people who are poor aren't working hard enough....and therefore don't deserve a decent wage that they can raise a family on, and that businessmen deserve to pay as little as possible to their employees, pay the bare minimum in taxes, and charge as much as they can for their goods and serviced...and, of course, hire scores of lobbyists to petition the government to have a never ending line of favorable legislation to keep the gravy train rolling....but if labor tries to have their voices heard, it's "thuggery".
Who buys all the goods and services that businessmen provide? Would it not behoove them to have as many people as possible to be able to afford those goods and services? Let's face it...those heady days of sending 20-30 credit card apps to people without stellar credit are pretty much over. People are tapped out. The only way to keep this economy moving in a positive direction is for businesses to stop focusing on short term gains via "take it or leave it" wages and benefits and think long term of the glut of sales that a strong working and middle class will bring.
It seems to me that the business world is being very short sighted....but hey, I guess when the big boys see their personal incomes explode while their employees' stagnate and no one says much about it...does nothing about it, and has the government in their back pockets? Long term thinking isn't necessary....neither is patriotism, I guess.
Sorry I took this off topic...this is about a train. Yes, I support the project. I do have my doubts about it's success though. Not because of the technology or the cost, but because of the idiotic aversion that we have in this country towards mass transit.
I like your post.
But lets get back to the topic (sort of).
Why do you think we have the aversion? I think it is because of the time it takes to get from point A to point B. So I think the bullet train has some pluses in that department.
Public transit is very much an "all or nothing" proposition. It requires sustained commitment which the government isn't good at providing.
I think that us Americans have been programmed into a love affair with our cars. I live in the sticks and work in a small town. There is no public transportation, so I drive every day. However, if I worked in the city, I'd love the idea of not having to fight traffic, waste gas sitting in traffic jams and coming to work stressed out before my workday even started.
But that's me. There are still way too many people that think that their car is their little oasis on the road, feel entitled to **** up the air in the cities, and to drive the most impractical, gas guzzling vehicles that they can...stupid false sense of bravado and an idiotic status measurement....that really? In the big picture only makes them look shallow as hell.
Now, do I give a shit if some jackoff wants a Hummer or a big Mercedes? Not at all. But let's be reasonable. If a person can afford a vehicle like that, they can afford a practical, fuel Efficient car for their commutes....or take mass transit.
I think the time it takes is secondary(at least), or else people wouldn't even think about waiting in traffic like I've seen in our cities..,I've been through DC, rode with a buddy of mine who is a truck driver into LA, the "Surekill" expressway that goes into Philly and have driven into NYC. Hell, even more locally for me...the Harrisburg traffic is ridiculous.
No...I think it's a mindset.
