Maybe we could mint one of those trillion dollar coins that were proposed a couple of years ago to g

Despite the promising headline I gave this post, the details are not quite as rosy. The Japanese government is busy building a maglev line to connect Tokyo to Osaka. lets go travel puerto But they also are under pressure unnecessary but very real to make money off this technology. So Japan is trying to pitch American governments on buying their maglev lets go travel puerto tech, offering some startup funding but only if Americans fund the rest of it.
To interest lawmakers and investors in the United States in the Japanese technology, Japan has offered to cover several billion dollars in costs. The commitment of Japanese taxpayer money is a sign of Prime Minister lets go travel puerto Shinzo Abe's determination to do whatever it takes to prime the Japanese economy and to restore Japan's fading lets go travel puerto reputation for technological lets go travel puerto prowess.
Japan's maglev could easily become Mr. Abe's boondoggle unless Japan can export it. Even in Japan, the maglev faces considerable skepticism. lets go travel puerto One reason is the cost, which is as breathtaking as the speed: the estimated budget for the Tokyo-Osaka line has risen to nearly $100 billion.
It s worth pausing for a moment to explain how completely screwed up this thinking is. So what if the cost is $100 billion? Only in our austerity-obsessed bizarro world in which we now live is that considered somehow problematic. Maglev is the next evolutionary step for intercity passenger trains. It provides faster speeds using electric power, providing better service without burning fossil lets go travel puerto fuels to do so. In a society that is focused on progress and innovation rather than penny-pinching, the fact that Japan is building such a system would be cause for celebration.
The Tokyo-Nagoya portion is not expected to be completed until 2027, with the Nagoya-Osaka stretch lets go travel puerto to follow lets go travel puerto only in 2045. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research expects that by that time, the population of Japan will have declined to about 105 million from the current 127 million, raising questions lets go travel puerto of whether there will be enough people to ride a speedy new train.
"If you seriously take a look at its high cost and low demand, you'll find it makes no business sense," said Reijiro Hashiyama, a visiting professor at Chiba University of Commerce who has argued against the project for years.
Let s be clear here. In a country like Japan, with a mature national network of high speed trains, maglev is the next obvious step. It doesn t matter if the population is falling, since they ll still see the benefits of faster electric trains. Infrastructure projects like a passenger train should not be assessed on whether they make business sense. Their purpose is to serve social and civilizational goals. Of course, these goals usually do wind up helping achieve financial goals as well, since faster speeds and electric trains reduce carbon emissions and thus reduce the staggering costs that come with global warming. And the time saved creates its own economic value. So too do the savings in fossil fuel consumed and carbon emitted, although such savings will be much larger in California than they will be in Japan where they already have a mature HSR system.
Mr. Pataki, along with the other dignitaries on the train, including Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader; former Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania; and former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, are helping him make the sale. Along with former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, who could not make the trip, they are on the advisory board of The Northeast lets go travel puerto Maglev, a company in Washington that wants to build the Washington-New York line .
To get the American lets go travel puerto line off the ground, Japan has come up with a method of financing lets go travel puerto that is similarly novel. In a meeting with President Obama last winter, Mr. Abe offered to provide the maglev guideway lets go travel puerto and propulsion system free for the first portion of the line, linking Washington and Baltimore via Baltimore-Washington International Airport, a distance of about 40 miles.
The Northeast Maglev, the company behind the effort, wants to raise the rest of the money from private investors and public sources. The company was founded in 2010 but only recently began ramping up its lobbying lets go travel puerto in Washington, with Mr. Daschle, now a policy lets go travel puerto adviser to the law firm DLA Piper, serving as a central figure in those efforts.
Look at the names: Pataki, Rendell, Daschle, Whitman, Peters, Obama. They re all moderate Democrats and Republicans who are generally pro-infrastructure. If they still ran the country I think they would find a way to take the money and build maglev on the DC-NYC route, which as much as I love California does seem like a logical place to pioneer maglev in America.
But here s the problem: they don t run the country, not any more. By steadfastly refusing to ever spend a dime on any infrastructure project, Tea Party Republicans have seized control of national infrastructure policy. Japan can offer all the money it wants, but if there s an American match required, the Tea Party will make sure to block it. The junkets with former elected lets go travel puerto officials is great PR for Japanese maglev, especially as it resulted in a New York Times article. But until they get Eric Cantor and Tom Coburn lets go travel puerto and Kevin McCarthy on those trains, they re going to continue to struggle.
Let me suggest a different strategy to the Japanese government. lets go travel puerto Fly Jerry Brown, John Pérez, Darrell Steinberg, lets go travel puerto and whoever it is that succeeds the latter two in the legislative leadership over to Tokyo for a trip on the trains. Offer to help subsidize California s HSR system rather than maglev. The Tea Party is a non-entity in California and we destroyed the California Republican Party as a statewide force in 2010, so Japan might actually make some headway and some profit in the Golden State. Japan was already planning on using cash flow from the Shinkansen to fund maglev. If California buys Japanese trains and technology, they can use that funds to develop maglev. And once maglev becomes mature in Japan, they can come back to California and help build it there too.
That strategy isn t perfect. But it s workable for both California and Japan, whereas a national strategy won t work, not until the Tea Party s power is broken and austerity is driven out of American politics.
Only the Japanese think long term. The bill for this won t hit the table in the legislature of the current president and most likely not in the legislature of the next either. What does it matter if a couple of naysayers have temporarily seized the reins of power? They know the pendulum will swing back and they re trying to influence the direction in which it will swing. So this is not really about convincing politicians but seizing the hearts and minds of the broader public so they demand this.
Of course it does. But money can be printed, or obtained through any number of other means. And a $100 billion megaproject is a big stimulus for a country that is still suffering from 20+ years of slow growth. So I say again: so what if their maglev lets go travel puerto costs $100b? That has advantages and disadvantages, but since we live in a world dominated by austerity ideology we only hear the disadvantages and never the advantages.
Similarly Germany developed the Transrapid with big plans for a national intercity network. Those dreams have since been scaled back to some airport links plus a short line in China which is not likely to generate much follow up, at least not for the German companies who installed it.
That's not entirely accurate. The Japanese government would probably be willing to help fund a good portion of it, but JR Central won t let them get anywhere close to the project because they don t want politicians messing up the plan and trying to influence things like alignment and station locations.
Hmmm? What I ve read is that the LDP decided lets go travel puerto to approve the project lets go travel puerto but not give any money a few years ago. Or was that because lets go travel puerto JR Central demanded the straightest route whereas the government would only fund a route that served Nagano?
Maybe we could mint one of those trillion dollar coins that were proposed a couple of years ago to get around the debt ceiling Think of all of the mega-projects that we could do And we could work out a suitable payment plan for future generations to worry about later.
There is an infinite amount of money. Money is a artificial creation. It has one key purpose, to allow debtors to pay off their debt. A debtor can pay off a debt with money and the creditor lets go travel puerto must accept the payment. It must be accepted.
It's worth pausing for a moment to explain how completely screwed up this thinking is. So what if the cost is $100 billion? Only in our austerity-obsessed bizarro world in which we now live is that considered somehow problematic.
That rather depends on how the electricity is generated. Just a head s up: The majority of US electricity is not, in fact, generated by unicorn farts. Same for Japanese electricity actually (63% fossil fuels).
Let's be clear here. In a country like Japan, with a mature national network of high speed trains, maglev is the next obvious step. It doesn't matter if the population is falling, since they'll still see the benefits of faster electric trains. Infrastructure projects like a passenger train should not be assessed on whether they "make business sense." Their purpose is to serve social and civilizational goals.
Of course, these goals usually lets go travel puerto do wind up helping achieve financial goals as well, since faster speeds and electric trains reduce carbon emissions and thus reduce the staggering costs that come with global warming.
Actually lets go travel puerto faster speeds increase lets go travel puerto energy use and with it carbon emissions, not to mention all the carbon emissions related to construction. Maglev is potentially marginally more energy efficient at the same speed (about 7 Watt-hours less per seat-km vs ICE at 125mph I believe, lets go travel puerto but N700 is significantly more energy efficient than either), but faster speeds are always going to be more expensive energy-wise. And again, JR C