High Speed Trains in China
Reflecting with a distant friend on how I spend my time, I realized that a lot of it is spent driving persons around, to doctor appointments, to visit someone in an assisted living situation, to a store, post office or pharmacy. In Milwaukee driving persons without cars is more significant than in most cities due to our very poor transit system.
Politicians in their frenzy to avoid raising taxes have let many things go, especially a system like the transit bus system, that affects low income and elderly persons. There are many attempts to fix the problem, taxpayers even voted to raise taxes to pay for good transportation; businesspersons, the young and old support it; yet politicians, who think they know best what is good for us, say no.
Tonight on TV a politician running for governor said we should turn down a rapid transit train system between Milwaukee and Madison that is being paid for in its entirety by the Federal Government. His reason was that we would need to pay for the upkeep of the system after it is built. Even though it will create jobs and infrastructure he says No due to taxes.
This obsession with putting the individual taxpayer over the common good of the many, especially the poor, is reflected in this transit issue. However, it is everywhere in our society: upkeep of our Park system, educational and health care systems, for examples. Neglect of transit, health, educational and park systems, all serving the common good, will prove to be expensive in the long run. But in the short run the individual with his individual car is king. No one talks about cutting back on road work.
We need more trains and buses, not cars. But until we focus on the common good over the individual, driving persons is important work.
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