The Future Happened Yesterday!
Do yourself a favor and read what Ron Rogan says in the following article before jumping onto what follows:
Let me start by saying Ron Cogan’s analysis is spot on.
The rest is me!
Sadly, America at every level has lost “rule of the people” to a “ruling class” who unfortunately believe they know what is best for you and me, while living their lives completely outside of the rules they impose on the rest of us.
Think ancient Rome. Where is it today?
I am famous for telling people, lots of people, that “the future happened yesterday!”? When I say that, most look at me like I just came from Mars.
But here’s the deal: 80 percent of all the scientists and engineers who have lived on this planet (at least during the time in which we can predict the beginnings of the human race), are living today.? And if you ain’t paying attention, technology is advancing at an exponential rate.
At what rate do you think the average politician with no technical background is advancing into our future versus the techies?
Don’t get me started.? Most of them are clueless.? Which is why you can get dictates such as, “By 2035 you will not be allowed to purchase anything but an electric car!”? No thought for the technology required, the battery materials required, the infrastructure required, the power grid required . . . it goes on and on.
Spend more money.? That’s the answer most politicians espouse to solve any problem.? And the reason politicians believe this nonsense is because they don’t have any skin in the game.? They just take what they want from you and me.
I live in California.? Here is just one of a multiplicity of money-grabbing schemes.? And I’m quoting from the Hoover Institution here:
In 2008, California voters approved $9.95 billion of state bond funding as seed money to build an 800-mile high-speed rail (HSR) network connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the Central Valley to coastal cities, at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour, with an expected completion date of 2020.
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But now, 15 years after the bond issue, three years after the expected completion date, not one train has left the station. Not one route has been completed, even though nearly all the $9.95 billion seed money has been spent. And the original budget of about $33 billion for the entire 800-mile system is now inadequate to build just one route (Bakersfield to Merced), whose cost pencils out to ?$207 million per mile—a cost that will almost certainly rise in the future, and for a route that may not be ready for ten years. Or more. Or perhaps ever.
California’s HSR is perhaps the greatest infrastructure failure in the history of the country. And the reason it failed is because of a gross failure of state governance, one on such a grand scale that it is nothing short of a betrayal of Californians.
The betrayal dates back to the project’s inception. A report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) found that the program’s 2008 business plan—which had been legally required to be submitted to the state legislature on September 1, 2008 but was not released until after the bond issue was voted—was deficient. The plan did not present statistics on train capacity, forecasts of segment service levels, how funds would be secured, how costs would be distributed by system segment, an operating break-even point, what analytical methods were used to forecast ridership, expected completion dates for environmental review and construction, and how risks would be mitigated.
Imagine a business plan without discussion of future funding, project capacity, demand at the product (segment) level, how costs would be allocated, or how risks would be mitigated. The 2008 business plan was anything but a business plan. Voters approved $9.95 billion in bond financing for a dream, not a vetted project. And like most dreams, California high-speed rail has turned out to be a fantasy.
If the plan had been submitted by the required date—more than two months before the election—then these deficiencies would have come to light. Instead, voters trusted those whom they elected and voted to tax themselves to fund a project that was never going to be feasible. They trusted that California’s state government was capable of spending their tax dollars effectively. At one time, California governance was among the best in the country. Our state government created and built capital projects efficiently and quickly. In the 1960s, such trust was warranted. It no longer is.”
This is a short version.? Go to the following link if you want the rest of the story:
And this is just one example of the types of decisions and policies, politicians at every level of government—from your local municipalities to the Federal level—make every day.? Most of them with no input from constituents who actually have some knowledge of the technical issues involved.
And don’t get me started on “consultants” to our politicians.? Too many of them are ex-politicians eager to help their political cronies steal even more of every working man and woman’s hard earned wages.
And I challenge every politician out there to convince me I am wrong!