Comment by psd1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by psd1 | Hacker News Reader

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> It makes no sense other than lobbyists and environment lawyers and other ticky-tack bullshit

Those other countries also have lobbyists and environment lawyers, so your thesis reveals a lack of discernment.

The poster child in the west for infrastructure projects is Spain, and i can assure you that Spain is not light on regulation.

America has an interesting political structure - look there for your answer.

Ultimately, a democracy with a strong concept of individual rights will inevitably surface nimbies. America's fractal disorganisation gives them multiple venues to oppose any project. America's love-hate relationship with federal bodies creates overlaps. America's semi-regular cycle into small-government administration means it regularly expunges institutional infrastructure experience. You could shoot every environmental lawyer and lobbyist, and your projects would still be bunfights.

> that helps no one

You're welcome to your own values. I believe there's a place called "Flint Michigan" where the citizens would disagree.

>so your thesis reveals a lack of discernment.

You're really quick to just get angry mad and throw out insults over me saying something as benign as 'wow it'd be nice if California used our tax money as effectively as the example in the article?' Just seems like a bizarre totally mundane thing to get hung up on and then have this nauseating Karen-like condescending tone 'actually... the costs are totally justified, it's fine that California spends 7-10x what every other developed country does--it just makes sense'. You reek of assigned opinion and just conformist talking points from Newsom.

I've lived in California for 40 years and every year the government becomes less effective and more tax money is embezzled and fleeced and squandered. I don't know how someone could travel to Europe or Japan and then come back to California and defend the state of our infrastructure and not be wholly embarrassed. Our schools, roads, bridges, everything that matters are decades behind (despite a sufficiently large tax base to fund those same projects).

We could be doing better, but simps like you just keep giving the one party system a free pass so there've never any accountability whatsoever. Good job, let's just keep lowering our expectations and shrugging this magnitude of incompetence off.

> I believe there's a place called "Flint Michigan" where the citizens would disagree.

How do you think Flint reinforces your argument? If anything it is evidence of exactly what I'm talking about---government bureaucrats making unaccountable decisions that then devastate and rip off the local constituents. They never fixed the Flint crisis... even Obama and Biden did nothing.

I was perfectly diplomatic, and you've responded with yet another rant.

You've flooded the comments with your California railing, none of which offers any new insight. I don't believe you've put any work into understanding the problem.

You have convinced me, and likely many others who are capable of reading your tone, that you're more interested in identity signaling than analysis. Maybe you'll find your crowd on Facebook?

My point stands about the lack of discernment you've shown here. I won't be talking to you again.

Wah wah wah, make it personal because you're mad about facts:

-China built 820 miles of high speed rail in 3 years.

-The Golden Gate Bridge took 4.5 years.

-Millau viaduct in France took 3 years.

-But now we can't even build 2 miles of LAX train in the same time...

Costs and the completion time for infrastructure to be completed are horrible. You can keep defending this as totally reasonable all you want but it's exactly why our quality of life keeps going down and we keep getting outclasses by every other country.

California could be so much better if we didn't have a bunch of people like you always making excuses for everything and removing any accountability from our government. Keep electing the same people and you'll get the same results.

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