White House Unveils ConnectHome For Low-Income Households

[ep0x73]

This is just another slippery slope, where does it end?
Give free internet access but you need a smart phone or computer and what if you have neither?
Should the government give away those items too at the taxpayers expense?

The bottom line is internet access is not a right, it's a privilege.

 

[Streiw]

This is just another slippery slope, where does it end?
Give free internet access but you need a smart phone or computer and what if you have neither?
Should the government give away those items too at the taxpayers expense?

The bottom line is internet access is not a right, it's a privilege.

This. It's not hard to pay for $40 a month for 'Net. If you can't afford that, well, then lack of connectivity is the least of your worries.

 

[Deleted member 204526]

This is just another slippery slope, where does it end?
Give free internet access but you need a smart phone or computer and what if you have neither?
Should the government give away those items too at the taxpayers expense?

The bottom line is internet access is not a right, it's a privilege.

Think about all the things the left says should be free. If they were granted every last one, even completely cutting all military spending and taxing the wealth at 100% wouldn't come close to paying for it all.

 

[maverikv]

Slippery slope is a logical fallacy, just an FYI.

Keep trotting it out though. Pretty soon you'll be using it to explain everything! It's a slippery slope.

 

[jtm55]

Hi All

2008 the banks caused a financial crisis that required a Trillion Dollar bailout to the very industry that caused it.
We give Billions of dollars in foreign aid & not one complaint.
Help the poor, huge debate, about whether it's a necessary. A society's willingness to help folk less fortunate says a lot about said society. A society is only as strong as its weakest link.

 

[rudy]

Hi All

2008 the banks caused a financial crisis that required a Trillion Dollar bailout to the very industry that caused it.
We give Billions of dollars in foreign aid & not one complaint.
Help the poor, huge debate, about whether it's a necessary. A society's willingness to help folk less fortunate says a lot about said society. A society is only as strong as its weakest link.

Um were you in a coma during the bailouts? because I am pretty sure there were plenty of complaints and even massive protests. I wont really get into your simplistic view of the bailouts or the fact they aren't free money it was loans that need to be repaid. Would you be happier if we issued loans instead? If society is only as strong as its weakest link we should look at how the rules and policy are making the weakest link weaker not stronger, addicting them to the system rather than helping them become independent. If you really care then you can read my posts and become an activist for change.

 

[jtm55]

Um were you in a coma during the bailouts? because I am pretty sure there were plenty of complaints and even massive protests. I wont really get into your simplistic view of the bailouts or the fact they aren't free money it was loans that need to be repaid. Would you be happier if we issued loans instead? If society is only as strong as its weakest link we should look at how the rules and policy are making the weakest link weaker not stronger, addicting them to the system rather than helping them become independent. If you really care then you can read my posts and become an activist for change.

Hi All
First off I only referenced the Trillion dollar bailout. Second I said there are Billions of dollars of foreign aid given with no complaints. Third you really don't have anything I'd be interested in hearing as you've hurled insults when none was warranted. Typical internet tough guy mentality.As to what I'm involved in politically that's my business . But thanks for your reply.

 

[Kueller]

Um were you in a coma during the bailouts? because I am pretty sure there were plenty of complaints and even massive protests. I wont really get into your simplistic view of the bailouts or the fact they aren't free money it was loans that need to be repaid. Would you be happier if we issued loans instead? If society is only as strong as its weakest link we should look at how the rules and policy are making the weakest link weaker not stronger, addicting them to the system rather than helping them become independent. If you really care then you can read my posts and become an activist for change.

Yes, I'd love for you to loan me billions during the depths of the next great recession,
when my only alternative is to declare bankruptcy as a direct result of reckless risks I've chosen to take.
I'll pay it back as soon as I've made billions on a recovering stock market. I'll even pay you a pittance of interest for giving me access to such huge sums of cash at a historic low point in the market.
Or I won't and I'll declare bankruptcy like I was going to originally, after paying myself handsomely for a couple more years. I've got nothing to lose after all.
Socialized losses, privatized profits is the crony capitalist way! You just need to have (control of others') billions to play...

 

[misterbobby]

Hi All

2008 the banks caused a financial crisis that required a Trillion Dollar bailout to the very industry that caused it.
We give Billions of dollars in foreign aid & not one complaint.
Help the poor, huge debate, about whether it's a necessary. A society's willingness to help folk less fortunate says a lot about said society. A society is only as strong as its weakest link.

Um when you start "helping" people it never ends. It is like feeding people as you keep feeding them until they die and then their kids and so on. If you really want to help then the only way would be to stop those people from reproducing...

 

[jtm55]

Um when you start "helping" people it never ends. It is like feeding people as you keep feeding them until they die and then their kids and so on. If you really want to help then the only way would be to stop those people from reproducing...

Hi All

I suppose that's one way.

 

[maverikv]

Um when you start "helping" people it never ends. It is like feeding people as you keep feeding them until they die and then their kids and so on. If you really want to help then the only way would be to stop those people from reproducing...

Can we start with you?

 

[Methadras]

ROI? Its not a hedge fund, its a government. You guys are so ridiculous. Such a childish worldview.

No, it's a realistic world view. Everything in life is a return on investment. Your parents raising you properly is a return on investment. Your education is a return on investment. Your experience at work and taking it to another employer is a return on investment. You doing the same to your children is ROI. Everything has a return on investment to some degree or another. The idea that you equate ROI with wealth and money management should have been an indicator to you that what government spends our tax dollars on should be getting ROI. Your naivete notwithstanding, I suggest you understand the exploitative nature of what government does with your/our money. If you don't care, that's fine, but then again in that case, I'd rather not see you interject an opinion that frankly has no value or merit since you can't even understand the fundamentals of ROI at any given level of life.

 

[Methadras]

So just quit your job and go on welfare if it's so great?

Oh right, you won't, because actually its awful and demeaning.

Stop acting like its a free ticket to the easy life. If it was, you would take it. Being on government assistance sucks.

To people with relative inexperience in life, welfare is more attractive than actual productive work. There are any numbers of examples of why this is true and there are even more examples of law why working vs. welfare is punitive to welfare recipients. It's regulatory. Welfare isn't great because the level of standards of living compared to someone who earns a high dollar income isn't that good. If I make a six digit figure, what would I have to give up to go on welfare? What would my standard of living have to become in order to receive free taxpayer money? It's a choice one would have to make.

However, if you are already born into it, are already steeped in the lifestyle of welfare, then either you stay in it or see everyone else as being better than you with respect to material wealth and you find a way to move yourself out of it and into the higher echelons of wealth and material gain. No on is saying that welfare is some kind of utopian panacea, but given that you have multigenerational welfare with no end in sight with all of the government programs to help one become more productive, one has to wonder if it's easier to remain at that strata.

 

[maverikv]

The problem is, you people who want an ROI on social services look at absolutely nothing but the immediate effects. It's completely disingenuous. Yet you call me naive.

I'll give you an example. Let's say we're spending, as a society, $75 a month to feed a needy person.

Food is a basic human need - it is at the very tip top of maslowe's heirarchy (or bottom technically, its a pyramid).

So when you cut that $75 because there's no ROI, now those people are desperate. They can no longer fulfill a need. Now they turn to crime, or out of options, they turn to vices like drugs or alcohol to medicate themselves.

So now, instead of spending $500 on housing, you're spending X on police and Y on jail (which includes food and shelter!) Now the owner of the shop that would sell the guy the food makes $75 less. You collect less taxes from him.

But you sure are saving that $75! Way to pump up that ROI!



Some people, society will always have to pay for somewhere. Its where you choose to do it that shows the nature of the society (and how smart they are). You aren't generating positive ROI, you're minimizing unavoidable negative ROI.

 

[Methadras]

The problem is, you people who want an ROI on social services look at absolutely nothing but the immediate effects. It's completely disingenuous. Yet you call me naive.

I'll give you an example. Let's say we're spending, as a society, $75 a month to feed a needy person.

Food is a basic human need - it is at the very tip top of maslowe's heirarchy (or bottom technically, its a pyramid).

So when you cut that $75 because there's no ROI, now those people are desperate. They can no longer fulfill a need. Now they turn to crime, or out of options, they turn to vices like drugs or alcohol to medicate themselves.

So now, instead of spending $500 on housing, you're spending X on police and Y on jail (which includes food and shelter!) Now the owner of the shop that would sell the guy the food makes $75 less. You collect less taxes from him.

But you sure are saving that $75! Way to pump up that ROI!



Some people, society will always have to pay for somewhere. Its where you choose to do it that shows the nature of the society (and how smart they are). You aren't generating positive ROI, you're minimizing unavoidable negative ROI.

Well first of all, no one in this country has starved to death unless it was by disease or on purpose. Latest statistics put it at about 100 - 150 people per year dying of starvation in the US and that is either from Anorexia or child neglect. For the elderly it's around 2000 - 3000 per year that die from malnutrition for various reasons. So your straw man is already in flames from you hypothetical $75 removal as a function of ROI. What you also neglect to mention is the multiplication factor of that $75 across a wide strata and that would be a lot of money saved, but either way, what you fail to even see because your naivete is showing again is the utter mismanagement of the poor.

We spend vast sums of wealth in this country as a function of compassion towards the poor which in reality is why I hate poor people. They are the problem and the reason why these messes started to begin with. In fact, poor people are the reason we have a lot of messes in this country. We are always cleaning up the fucking horrid decisions that poor people make in their lives and they all splash on over to the rest of us that aren't poor and don't make poor decisions, and try to live productive lives. Poor people don't. They are poor and remain poor for one primary reason, they are horrible decision makers. All of them.

I really hate them. They are truly a vacuous parasite on the body of rational productive peoples everywhere. We are always finding ways to try and uplift them and they give all of us the finger. We subsidize them, we pay for their food, we pay for their housing, we pay for their clothes, everything and all we get in return is give us more asshole. They have no impetus to change and all because of some twisted egalitarian logic that is built on the premise of christian charity that we must, nay, we are utterly obligated to debase ourselves at the altar of the poor. Well fuck them to hell. They have done nothing for us and I'm tired of doing anything for them. The War on Poverty has spend nearly $15 trillion to see more multi-generational poor than ever before. The quest to help the poor has led us down a road of insolvency.

Enough with helping them. Make them help themselves for once. No more money, no more charity, no more.

 

[misterbobby]

Can we start with you?

I am not one of "those people" that lives off the government you dolt.

 

[Lollipop]

Well first of all, no one in this country has starved to death unless it was by disease or on purpose. Latest statistics put it at about 100 - 150 people per year dying of starvation in the US and that is either from Anorexia or child neglect. For the elderly it's around 2000 - 3000 per year that die from malnutrition for various reasons. So your straw man is already in flames from you hypothetical $75 removal as a function of ROI. What you also neglect to mention is the multiplication factor of that $75 across a wide strata and that would be a lot of money saved, but either way, what you fail to even see because your naivete is showing again is the utter mismanagement of the poor.

We spend vast sums of wealth in this country as a function of compassion towards the poor which in reality is why I hate poor people. They are the problem and the reason why these messes started to begin with. In fact, poor people are the reason we have a lot of messes in this country. We are always cleaning up the fucking horrid decisions that poor people make in their lives and they all splash on over to the rest of us that aren't poor and don't make poor decisions, and try to live productive lives. Poor people don't. They are poor and remain poor for one primary reason, they are horrible decision makers. All of them.

I really hate them. They are truly a vacuous parasite on the body of rational productive peoples everywhere. We are always finding ways to try and uplift them and they give all of us the finger. We subsidize them, we pay for their food, we pay for their housing, we pay for their clothes, everything and all we get in return is give us more asshole. They have no impetus to change and all because of some twisted egalitarian logic that is built on the premise of christian charity that we must, nay, we are utterly obligated to debase ourselves at the altar of the poor. Well fuck them to hell. They have done nothing for us and I'm tired of doing anything for them. The War on Poverty has spend nearly $15 trillion to see more multi-generational poor than ever before. The quest to help the poor has led us down a road of insolvency.

Enough with helping them. Make them help themselves for once. No more money, no more charity, no more.

Well said

 

[jssaylor2007]

How about we get broadband to rural America at reasonable prices before we start handing out the cheap internet free to the low income? I pay 100 a month for 3mb, and it ain't changing anytime soon. The people this benefits can typically get ~10-20mb for less than half what I pay for 3.

 

[TwistedAegis]

Well first of all, no one in this country has starved to death unless it was by disease or on purpose. Latest statistics put it at about 100 - 150 people per year dying of starvation in the US and that is either from Anorexia or child neglect. For the elderly it's around 2000 - 3000 per year that die from malnutrition for various reasons. So your straw man is already in flames from you hypothetical $75 removal as a function of ROI. What you also neglect to mention is the multiplication factor of that $75 across a wide strata and that would be a lot of money saved, but either way, what you fail to even see because your naivete is showing again is the utter mismanagement of the poor.

We spend vast sums of wealth in this country as a function of compassion towards the poor which in reality is why I hate poor people. They are the problem and the reason why these messes started to begin with. In fact, poor people are the reason we have a lot of messes in this country. We are always cleaning up the fucking horrid decisions that poor people make in their lives and they all splash on over to the rest of us that aren't poor and don't make poor decisions, and try to live productive lives. Poor people don't. They are poor and remain poor for one primary reason, they are horrible decision makers. All of them.

I really hate them. They are truly a vacuous parasite on the body of rational productive peoples everywhere. We are always finding ways to try and uplift them and they give all of us the finger. We subsidize them, we pay for their food, we pay for their housing, we pay for their clothes, everything and all we get in return is give us more asshole. They have no impetus to change and all because of some twisted egalitarian logic that is built on the premise of christian charity that we must, nay, we are utterly obligated to debase ourselves at the altar of the poor. Well fuck them to hell. They have done nothing for us and I'm tired of doing anything for them. The War on Poverty has spend nearly $15 trillion to see more multi-generational poor than ever before. The quest to help the poor has led us down a road of insolvency.

Enough with helping them. Make them help themselves for once. No more money, no more charity, no more.

Jesus. At least you're honest about your hatred of someone for the crime of being in shitty circumstances.

And for all these anecdotes about caviar, how about some actual data:

Single mother, three children (father left), living in California, a high cost state:

$800 in cash, $800 in food stamps. Average rent for a 2-BR apartment in CA is $1,341 (couldn't find 1-BR statewide #s). I know in this case, rent was $750/mo for a cockroach infested 1-BR in a bad part of town.

$50 left over to try and cloth her kids, put gas in a car (hell, have a car) to try and get herself back on her feet to get a job. But she could only look in that one county, because if she crossed county lines, she would lose her benefits and have to reapply, meaning there could be a month with even those small benefits getting much smaller, only receiving emergency food aid after crossing county lines.

Yes, this is truly a person worthy of hate, or worthy of jealousy for the cushy life all those amazing government welfare benefits provide. I surely wouldn't want her or those like her having access to the internet for a "measly" $15 (30% of her cash left after rent) to assist in trying to find a job, or supplement learning, or god forbid, a spare moment of entertainment in a pretty bleak existence.

 

[jssaylor2007]

Jesus. At least you're honest about your hatred of someone for the crime of being in shitty circumstances.

And for all these anecdotes about caviar, how about some actual data:

Single mother, three children (father left), living in California, a high cost state:

$800 in cash, $800 in food stamps. Average rent for a 2-BR apartment in CA is $1,341 (couldn't find 1-BR statewide #s). I know in this case, rent was $750/mo for a cockroach infested 1-BR in a bad part of town.

$50 left over to try and cloth her kids, put gas in a car (hell, have a car) to try and get herself back on her feet to get a job. But she could only look in that one county, because if she crossed county lines, she would lose her benefits and have to reapply, meaning there could be a month with even those small benefits getting much smaller, only receiving emergency food aid after crossing county lines.

Yes, this is truly a person worthy of hate, or worthy of jealousy for the cushy life all those amazing government welfare benefits provide. I surely wouldn't want her or those like her having access to the internet for a "measly" $15 (30% of her cash left after rent) to assist in trying to find a job, or supplement learning, or god forbid, a spare moment of entertainment in a pretty bleak existence.

So do what a person did before living off of the system ever existed... move to a lower cost area that has more jobs.

 

[TwistedAegis]

So do what a person did before living off of the system ever existed... move to a lower cost area that has more jobs.

Sure, it worked just like that in the past, right? (Insert standard quote about ignorance of history)

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/

 

[Methadras]

Jesus. At least you're honest about your hatred of someone for the crime of being in shitty circumstances.

And for all these anecdotes about caviar, how about some actual data:

Single mother, three children (father left), living in California, a high cost state:

$800 in cash, $800 in food stamps. Average rent for a 2-BR apartment in CA is $1,341 (couldn't find 1-BR statewide #s). I know in this case, rent was $750/mo for a cockroach infested 1-BR in a bad part of town.

$50 left over to try and cloth her kids, put gas in a car (hell, have a car) to try and get herself back on her feet to get a job. But she could only look in that one county, because if she crossed county lines, she would lose her benefits and have to reapply, meaning there could be a month with even those small benefits getting much smaller, only receiving emergency food aid after crossing county lines.

Yes, this is truly a person worthy of hate, or worthy of jealousy for the cushy life all those amazing government welfare benefits provide. I surely wouldn't want her or those like her having access to the internet for a "measly" $15 (30% of her cash left after rent) to assist in trying to find a job, or supplement learning, or god forbid, a spare moment of entertainment in a pretty bleak existence.

Her bad choices foisted this on her and on us. She doesn't have to be in California, she can go to any other less expensive state, unless there is a gun being pointed at her head to stay. Oh wait, I guess federal, state, local welfare laws, rules, and guidelines really do enslave people after all. You've made my point very well.

 

[Methadras]

Sure, it worked just like that in the past, right? (Insert standard quote about ignorance of history)

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/

And the world really didn't collapse then either. People in shitty circumstances are not beholden to government for their abilities to change their circumstances. People do it daily all time. My prior point is that everyone else is being wage enslaved to redistribute that wealth to other peoples shitty decision making processes and frankly enough is enough.

 

[jssaylor2007]

Sure, it worked just like that in the past, right? (Insert standard quote about ignorance of history)

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/photos/

It sure did. I live right smack in the middle of it, was raised on a cotton farm that my great grandparents bought prior to the dustbowl.

As far as comparing the great depression and dustbowl to what I argued, it doesn't match up. There were no places to go back then, only false opportunity. Why can't this mother of 3 hop on a greyhound, ride to Texas, pay 50% less for rent and have more job opportunities? The answer is because she doesn't have to. The government will support her unwise toxic lifestyle decisions and pay for her to stay where she is, regardless of being able to find a job or affordable place to live.

 

[TwistedAegis]

Her bad choices foisted this on her and on us. She doesn't have to be in California, she can go to any other less expensive state, unless there is a gun being pointed at her head to stay. Oh wait, I guess federal, state, local welfare laws, rules, and guidelines really do enslave people after all. You've made my point very well.

Yes, having no money to go somewhere because she's found a job elsewhere, how exactly? Clearly, you believe in your point regardless of any facts surrounding it. It's too bad her bad choices involved someone going crazy after several years of marriage, clearly she should have gone to the palm reader before marrying him to see if he would drain their bank accounts and run off several years in the future.

And yeah, the dust bowl worked out great for a ton of people, it didn't screw over any other generations locking them into poverty either, at which point people can simply hate them for not "just making it work".

Personally, I guess I can look forward to our new feudal society in which we hate the dumb peasants locked outside our gates. Sounds like a great and hopeful society.

 

[jtm55]

Well first of all, no one in this country has starved to death unless it was by disease or on purpose. Latest statistics put it at about 100 - 150 people per year dying of starvation in the US and that is either from Anorexia or child neglect. For the elderly it's around 2000 - 3000 per year that die from malnutrition for various reasons. So your straw man is already in flames from you hypothetical $75 removal as a function of ROI. What you also neglect to mention is the multiplication factor of that $75 across a wide strata and that would be a lot of money saved, but either way, what you fail to even see because your naivete is showing again is the utter mismanagement of the poor.

We spend vast sums of wealth in this country as a function of compassion towards the poor which in reality is why I hate poor people. They are the problem and the reason why these messes started to begin with. In fact, poor people are the reason we have a lot of messes in this country. We are always cleaning up the fucking horrid decisions that poor people make in their lives and they all splash on over to the rest of us that aren't poor and don't make poor decisions, and try to live productive lives. Poor people don't. They are poor and remain poor for one primary reason, they are horrible decision makers. All of them.

I really hate them. They are truly a vacuous parasite on the body of rational productive peoples everywhere. We are always finding ways to try and uplift them and they give all of us the finger. We subsidize them, we pay for their food, we pay for their housing, we pay for their clothes, everything and all we get in return is give us more asshole. They have no impetus to change and all because of some twisted egalitarian logic that is built on the premise of christian charity that we must, nay, we are utterly obligated to debase ourselves at the altar of the poor. Well fuck them to hell. They have done nothing for us and I'm tired of doing anything for them. The War on Poverty has spend nearly $15 trillion to see more multi-generational poor than ever before. The quest to help the poor has led us down a road of insolvency.

Enough with helping them. Make them help themselves for once. No more money, no more charity, no more.

Hi All
Since you're against helping folk less fortunate than you, how about this?
We cut off all foreign aid to our allies which amounts to Billions of dollars if not Trillions
excluding aid in the event of natural disasters. Use that money to fix the countries infrastructure which is crumbling before our eyes.Our countries roads, bridges railways, and sewage systems are in dire need of repair. There are large segments of rural America that don't have broadband internet. You could put those less fortunate people to work & repair the infrastructure as well. The proverbial killing two birds with one stone.

 

[jssaylor2007]

Hi All
Since you're against helping folk less fortunate than you, how about this?
We cut off all foreign aid to our allies which amounts to Billions of dollars if not Trillions
excluding aid in the event of natural disasters. Use that money to fix the countries infrastructure which is crumbling before our eyes.Our countries roads, bridges railways, and sewage systems are in dire need of repair. There are large segments of rural America that don't have broadband internet. You could put those less fortunate people to work & repair the infrastructure as well. The proverbial killing two birds with one stone.

Yep, I am completely on-board with that.

 

[TwistedAegis]

As of 2012, the US spent $38B in foreign aid.

It's estimated that we'll need to spend $3.6 trillion by 2020 (as of 2014) by 2020 to fix infrastructure in the US.

You likely couldn't expand broadband to all of rural America for $38B, much less put any kind of dent in our infrastructure issues.

 

[maverikv]

Well at least we know he's just a terrible person and doesn't actually have a viewpoint worth arguing against

 

[Lollipop]

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Winston Churchill

 

[Methadras]

Hi All
Since you're against helping folk less fortunate than you, how about this?
We cut off all foreign aid to our allies which amounts to Billions of dollars if not Trillions
excluding aid in the event of natural disasters. Use that money to fix the countries infrastructure which is crumbling before our eyes.Our countries roads, bridges railways, and sewage systems are in dire need of repair. There are large segments of rural America that don't have broadband internet. You could put those less fortunate people to work & repair the infrastructure as well. The proverbial killing two birds with one stone.

Foreign aid amounts to roughly $25 billions dollars. However, that's besides the point. I have zero issue with workfare and that should be the case in all 50 states and infrastructure repair. All things that are vitally needed.

Also, I'm not against helping people less fortunate than I am. I do it all the time. I'm against government creating a permanent impoverished class with tax payer dollars thinking they are going to solve the problems that the impoverish create on a daily basis. But you see, my helping people, if I so choose is my choice. I don't have the choice to tell government not to. Furthermore, that $25 billion really won't go a long way considering Obama signed a shovel ready jobs program to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars that has amounting to almost nothing being done except for union paybacks. That's where that money has gone and will go in the future. Now granted, congress in total approved this, so they are not blameless, but disposition of that money was utterly wasted as was predicted by many many people.

 

[jtm55]

Foreign aid amounts to roughly $25 billions dollars. However, that's besides the point. I have zero issue with workfare and that should be the case in all 50 states and infrastructure repair. All things that are vitally needed.

Also, I'm not against helping people less fortunate than I am. I do it all the time. I'm against government creating a permanent impoverished class with tax payer dollars thinking they are going to solve the problems that the impoverish create on a daily basis. But you see, my helping people, if I so choose is my choice. I don't have the choice to tell government not to. Furthermore, that $25 billion really won't go a long way considering Obama signed a shovel ready jobs program to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars that has amounting to almost nothing being done except for union paybacks. That's where that money has gone and will go in the future. Now granted, congress in total approved this, so they are not blameless, but disposition of that money was utterly wasted as was predicted by many many people.

Hi All
I too am against the government creating a permanent impoverished class. I do think the $25 billion for foreign aid is on the low side. But be that as it may. I still think the answer is in repairing the infrastructure. If not, the country is going to have catastrophic failures across the country. A example of this is the Amtrak derailment in Pennsylvania back in May of this year. The Federal Railroad Administration stated for the stretch of track where the derailment took place there was no automated speed control system called positive train control that could have overridden human errors and slowed the train down.

While the cost is steep it must be done or we are going to see a lot more accidents like this. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I do know something has to be done to correct this.