The thing is that Acela has been a huge hit in the NorthEast since it opened . It has displaced millions of car trips, has displaced short-haul flights, has improved traffic in some of the most congested areas, improved air traffic in some of the most congested airspace . Imagine what it could do if it were actual high speed rail, if service rose to supply the need!
However Acela is based in the idea that no one will pay for high speed rail. Instead we have literally a century of billion dollar projects before we get there
For medical care, the US government actually spends a bunch on healthcare on par with most other countries
I think he’s technically correct, by virtue of lying by omission. US government spends money on devices like Medicare and Veterans Services that are much less expensive (although I’m sure still obscene) vs US spends a lot more than anyone else by virtue of privately funded services with Multiple levels of profit-making for most of us. As always the only real answer is that it’s more complicated than anyone expects
– as an employed citizen with a family, my employer and I pay a stupendous amount for my healthcare and everything I spend includes multiple levels of profit taking
– as a retired Veteran, my ex father-in-law pays nothing for medical care. He uses services paid by US Government, with fewer layers and no profit taking. As the largest user of services such as drugs, they can negotiate better rates. Granted, service can be poor but that’s directly related to insufficient funding
I’m going with “size doesn’t matter” here; it’s all politics. On the one hand we have a political requirement that all these long distance routes be kept running, even if they’ll never be viable, never be funded adequately. But on the other hand most of the population is in urban/suburban areas that could be effectively served by good rail service. We don’t have the political will power to create good rail service where it’s most effective, most needed, but we do waste money on bad rail service where it will never be effective
Railroads were not an option as they were expensive and land intensive
I’m not buying this, since the tracks and right of way used to exist. Yes it’s really expensive to acquire now, and that’s going to happen since centers of population change but you can’t use this as an historical reason, because historically we had a lot more train service.
For sure, it’s a huge tragedy any way you try to look. This is not ok.
I really only object to people claiming there’s a simple solution, because that’s not reality. There’s a lot of history of blood and carnage, and lots of blame in all directions. There’s a reason this region was historically the party of the world where World War III was most likely to start, and you’re not getting anywhere by saying “side x needs to stop doing y”
But water hammer is an understood, fixable problem. It’s mostly that modern appliances have solenoid valves that switch too quickly for older piping found main most peoples homes. Even then, a water hammer arrestor will usually cover it
Labor is the most expensive part: isn’t that just doubling the labor cost? Or is it that when a house is converted, they just thread through the existing leaky plumbing?
That’s what I wonder. I definitely see how cpvc and pex are a lot more convenient, much lower labor costs to instal, but my house is 80 years old, and I have not had to replace any plumbing in the 20 years I’ve been here. It’s mostly copper, which I assume is not original (several decades ago, my area had major assistance programs to remove leaded pipes), but there’s cast iron and galvanized where I have no idea how old it might be.
I wish I could upvote many times - does anyone do this differently? Does Microsoft think “maybe if we make a useless search with ai instead of bing, people will use it?”
She should be objecting to all the edits, not just the eye shape and overly filtered skin tones. Why did they need to edit her nose, or make that one giant dumbo ear? how could anyone think this mess is an improvent on the model’s great looks?