It is? They are proposing reducing peoples taxes so they can spend it on college? Great.
That simply begs the question. What determineâs âsufficient marketâ. I get the point about efficiency.
But if a public good is not profitable but drastically helps a segment of the country in need of it, where there is no efficient alternative, who cares that it isnât profitable.
If care for mentally handicapped isnât âprofitableâ should we not do it, just because there isnât a âsufficient marketâ for making money off the handicapped?
Generics and platitudes rarely work.
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Amtrak doesnât need to âfoldâ. Why hasnât the magic market hand stepped in already?
Youâre wrong there.
Which is why Trump is fighting tooth and nail to prevent his tax returns being released, which will show that heâs never been as rich as he has been saying he is.
Once that mystique is goneâŚpeople will take off the blinders and start seeng him for what he really is.
So it isnât a blind hole we just keep pouring dollars into.
Fossil fuels actually fire the entire industrial worldâs economies.
There are no direct subsidies paid to fossil fuel companies either.
Because they canât compete with a subsidized Amtrak.
Take the subsidies away and where thereâs a need the market will provide.
can you show me a line on the tax form that ask for value of assets?
please and thank you.
Your net worth is not reported anywhere on your 1040.
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Non-existent marketing. Lowest common denominator trains.
People would ride Luxury Trains, Retro Trains. Fun Trains
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And it canât be extrapolated?
Sure, thereâs this:
No. All the tax return will show is income. There are lots of reasonable strategies for lowering income while investing in and growing business assets.
In all likelihood, Trump is income poor and asset rich, with most of his assets tied up in real estate.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tax/comments/4jbqzs/can_you_tell_net_worth_from_a_tax_return/
But if youâve got a whole lot of real estate that is performing poorly and are taking tax write-offs, that can be extrapolated as failures (rather than clever tax sheltersâŚ)
So I think my original statement stands. Trump doesnât want people to know whatâs in his tax returns because they will show that he is not the successful businessman that many people on the right thinks he is.
And it begs the question - if Trump isnât as successful as the image he presents says he is, would you re-evaluate your opinion of him as a master deal maker who is re-establishing the USâs pre-eminence in the world?
Trains are dope. When maglev becomes a big thing and that Hyperloop gets built, itâs gonna change the game entirely. Letâs brink back interurbans while weâre at it.
Arenât the subsidies to keep ticket costs low? If so, I think they would be counted as sales.
Your statement sands sinking in quicksand. Your net worth isnât reported anywhere on your federal income taxes.
There are lots of creative ways to keep your taxable income low while building tremendous net worth.
Comparing the weight of a coach bus and passenger rail car and also how many people they each move respectively, I came up with an approximation that rail cars move about twice as much weight for the same number of passengers.
Even with much greater efficiency in rail, this is a losing proposition given that buses use already existing roads and trains must build their own.
ButâŚ
When I lived in Connecticut however, trains were BY FAR the best way for me to travel to New York City and I did it many times and spent countless thousands of dollars in related expenses. Hotels, restaurants, tickets, taxis, who knows what else. We brought our children many times too, for big time shows and stuff. Museums, holidays, whatever. This is economic activity on a massive scale that would not happen otherwise or be so much reduced as to be almost insignificant. How to calculate that I donât know, but itâs an important part of the equation.
That assumes people would not use other transportation if the trains were not available. I donât think that can be shown to be true or if so, what the percentage reduction would be.
At worst youâd take a car or bus to the citiyâs commuter rail centers and disembark there if you wanted to go to the city and avoid the hassles of driving. Without AMTRAK, more parking would have been made available at those outer locations of the cityâs transit systems.
Itâs not an assumption, we would not have done more than a couple of times and having lived there for forty years I can say with a high level of confidence that the sentiment is very widespread.
Itâs a common topic of discussion in the region and virtually everyone takes trains to the city from time to time. A car in New York is like having an albatross around your neck.
And buses suck, not even an option.
You didnât actually read my post. Do so, think about it,and reply again.
Sure I read it. And Iâm telling you with some level of expertise on the subject that such trips would be massively reduced. Why is that so hard to believe?
We donât know that to be true at all because as I said, the outlying city terminals would have developed accommodation for those that didnât want to drive into the city.
