Commentary: I’m reading a history of the interstate highway system, partially because I sense that the whole thing is widely overrated. Its construction massively disrupted the economics of small towns. It ruined the look and feel of large cities. The cost overruns were enormous and it took far longer to complete than anyone estimated.
One has to wonder what inspired this thing to which hardly anyone objected at the time. The United States had the world’s most marvelous system for passenger travel. It was built with treasure, blood, sweat, and tears. It was the achievement of the ages. After the Second World War, it could have been expanded. Instead it was abandoned for the car.
This is because the American automotive industry had developed political power. They owned the politicians in a way that the train industry did not. Plus, and this is weird to say, American elites were extremely impressed by the automotive industry built by Germany, along with the legendary Autobahn. The United States wanted its own version.
By 1952, it was a done deal. The United States would invest in cars and bail on trains. This was pitched as more consistent with American ideals of freedom and independence. Why hop on a train when you can drive anywhere in your own car?
The results were spectacular in part but the dangers of the cars were never really considered as part of the plan. Giving everyone a 1.5 ton machine to maneuver in whichever way the driver wanted obviously introduces certain complications. Even now I feel it every day when driving on highways. I think “This is such a crazy system destined for disaster.”
Meanwhile, Europe, the UK, and China have spent the last decades heavily investing in trains, which in turn has made Americans jealous yet again. Anyone who travels knows this. European trains are wonderful, affordable, and luxurious in ways that no one experiences in the United States. Indeed, train travel for Americans is unusual outside the Northeast Corridor.
That’s when California, which always imagines itself to be on top of all the new trends, conjured up the idea of a “bullet train,” a high-speed rail, that would extend from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The developers and lawmakers in the sunny state would copy China and transport people in record time all over the state. Oh how jealous will be the rest of the state!
The year was 1995. It’s now 30 years later. The state has spent at least $38 billion on this thing, with help from the federal government. Massive resources have been diverted to this monstrosity. There were environmental permits, eminent domain disputes, property purchases, and endless tangles regarding management.
In all these years, what do they have to show for it? There is a framework in place in the middle section of the state, Merced to Bakersfield, covering exactly 119 miles. This is a length that can be travelled by car in two and a half hours, thus defeating the whole point of the high-speed rail. What’s more, the tracks haven’t been laid.
After 30 years, most of what has been installed is already dilapidated and rusting since no one really accounted for maintenance costs. Obviously not one single passenger has ridden the train. Not one ticket has been sold.
The Trump administration is livid about this disaster and has decided to cut California off. Very obviously, there will be no train. Not even allowing for another century of construction at this pace would realize the dream. It’s simply not going to happen.
This is all a huge embarrassment.
I looked up the website for the project. They have abandoned the whole idea, or so it seems. Now it is being pitched as an economic engine for California business. Here I quote:
- An Economic Engine for California
- Over 15,000 high quality jobs created
- 171 miles under design with 119 of that in active construction
- Engaging more than 900 small businesses
- $22 billion in economic impact
Hint: there is a difference between an economic engine and a cash incinerator.
Pity the webmaster who had to write those words. It includes truth-telling admissions: “As the Merced and Bakersfield extensions approach 60 percent design and as additional funding continues to become available, the Authority and its Board will determine appropriate construction package scope, cost, schedule, and delivery methods. No construction agreements have been developed at this time.”
New estimate for the first leg of completion: 2033.
One part is missing: passengers. Another part: completion. Active construction means nothing. I could be making mud pies in my backyard and claim that a skyscraper is in active construction, not to mention jobs being created!
There is even a report to the legislature including a photo of a fantasy train. It is packed with pictures of people moving stuff around, driving in bolts, gathering in teams, lifting large beams with cranes, and so on, and one picture of a train that is marked as a rendering. I feel awful for the people who wrote this report. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig!
Clearly, this whole thing has become a boondoggle for the ages. The report reveals Soviet levels of cope. It’s a perfect plan for bankruptcy. It would take the entire GDP of the West plus a thousand years to get this done.
All of which raises the question: Why is this not happening? Maybe it is true that the United States just cannot build things anymore. Too much bureaucracy, too little skill and work ethic, too much complacency with existing prosperity, and therefore not much inspiration to do anything big and new. I cannot say for sure.
There is clearly the problem of private property. Despite California’s love of the collective, its residents are fanatics for their property rights. They sue each other if a tree limb from a neighbor grows one inch off the fence. I can easily imagine that the authorities have faced impossible legal challenges just getting access to build.
I’m tempted just to resort to pure economic logic here. Socialism doesn’t work and this is a socialist project. There is no incentive to complete or even do anything. There are no inputs and outputs that reflect profitability metrics. Accounting doesn’t matter really. It’s only just money in and money out. The process of burning through resources has become an end in itself.
It is plainly not true that Americans cannot build things anymore. There are skyscrapers still going up in New York City and many other cities. U.S. infrastructure is not great but it is not all falling down tomorrow. True, most actual construction in this country is privately funded with discipline over cost and a deadline to meet. That does make a difference.
Look at what happened to the charging stations that were supposed to be built by the feds over these years. They blew through $7.5 billion and ended up creating only, at most, 35 places with 226 stations. Absolutely pathetic by any standard.
That said, trains in Europe, Japan, and China are just fine and they are government-funded. Somehow they work. Sure, they are costly and not profitable but they exist and carry passengers and serve a public purpose. It seems that other countries are better at public funding and projects than the United States.
If you think about the U.S. space program, you see the same thing. Over many decades, the federal government has decided it is better off contracting out to Elon Musk, who has even been tasked with rescuing NASA astronauts from the International Space Station because government could not do it.
America is not broken. The U.S. government is. Remember that when people claim that we should have single-payer medical service or some other new grand program. The United States is really bad at socialism, even worse than Europe or China. But the U.S. is still good at private enterprise.
In envisioning its high-speed rail system, California hoped to be on the cutting edge. Instead it has become a paradigmatic case of bureaucratic failure, and a laughingstock the world over.
About the author: Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press, as well as 10 books in five languages, most recently “Liberty or Lockdown.” He is also the editor of “The Best of Ludwig von Mises.” He writes a daily column on economics for The Epoch Times and speaks widely on the topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.
Editor’s Note: For more on highway insanity in Oklahoma. click here for Pike Off OTA. We include their link, logos, and art not because they are advertising (they don’t), but because they are correct in opposing the Oklahoma Highway Industrial Complex – Politicians with bulldozers should not be allowed to trump truth.
