$243 Million Dollars spent for a joy ride into space.What a waste.

[dblack]

 

[Mushroom]

For statists, everything is the realm of government.

Of that I am all to aware. And funny, how that almost never makes things better, and all to often makes them worse.

Oh, Boise is one I have seen myself. They at one time had an extensive light rail line that ran from there all the way to the Oregon border.

And that is just the main loop. That map dates to around 1910, and they are still digging up trolley tacks all over Boise, they literally just paved over them when the lines shut down.

And like in most other cities of the era, this was run by a private company. Just like the lines that ran from Stockton to Chico to Sacramento, then all the way to San Francisco. Largely losing money on passenger transit, but making a profit on produce and mail service. Then the mail went to trucks, and the lines shut down. And in many cities, there was then nothing for decades. But in others, private bus lines took over.

In Boise, we had "Boise Urban Stages", which was created in 1973 primarily to help students and people get to and from the hospitals and university. A private company, that used mostly older busses (and even school busses) retired from other bigger cities. It was profitable, until 1999 when Boise decided to take over the entire operation and bought it out, creating "Valley Regional Transit".

Which just like LA, has the dream of spending a lot of money and building a rail system to replace the one that was closed decades ago.

In the 1950's in LA, somebody started getting the bright idea that having these private companies run these bus services was not good, and the government bought them all out. In LA, it was the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, which bought up over a dozen rail and bus lines. Shut them all down, abandoned all rail transit, with the plan of building monorails all over the city. Well, we all know how that went.

Created in 1951, LAMTA barely lasted a decade, being replaced by the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) in 1964. Yet another government agency that ran one of the most extensive bus systems in the country. And it was a mess. It limped along until 1993, when finally the monorail plans were all dead and gone, and they decided that many rebuilding the rail lines they had closed decades before would be a good idea. So RTD became the LA Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Spending tens of billions of dollars, to try and recreate what their grandfather had destroyed 3 decades earlier. The San Francisco Bay area is doing the exact same thing. Where as described you could use Key System (a private company) to take a train from downtown San Francisco all the way to Sacramento. The lower deck of the Bay Bridge was built to service trains and rail service. But they killed the cross-bay lines in 1958 and converted the lower deck to car traffic. With their main line gone, Key was sold to AC Transit, a new government run agency.

That is the folly of "Government ownership". Taking ownership of a working system, killing it in the name of "progress". Then years later trying to recreate it all over again.

 

[Wuwei]

Wait, housing? How is that the realm of the government?

SO tell me, do you think the government has the right to tell a private citizen what they can rent their property for? Housing costs are based upon a great many things, mostly the value of the land itself. Want affordable housing? The answer for that is actually amazingly simple.

Do not live in grossly overpriced megacities. There is a reason I stopped doing that decades ago, it is lunacy. When I could rent a 2 bedroom house in Alabama on $8 an hour, and in LA just a room in an apartment runs $800, then the problem is not "affordable housing". It is just that the cost of living in the megacities is broken. That is not the problem or fault of the Government, people need to move to where they can afford to live within their means.

Grocery stores? Really? You want the Government to get involved in the retail business now, also? Of course, it is of no help that most of them pulled out because of many things, including theft, taxes, and the cost of the land making them lose money. I have lived in a "food desert", have you? I have discussed this before in fact, and it is the state and local governments that are the most to blame here. I don't see how the Federal Government would help at all.

And Public Transportation. In most areas, that is actually private enterprise. And amazingly, almost all followed the same path. Private companies set up the systems, and run them for years. Then invariably, at some point the local Government steps in and takes over. LA, San Francisco, Boise, I have seen this over and over again. Funny, how often the service was better before the Government stepped in and took it over.

Child care? How in the hell is that the issue of the Government, or "infrastructure"? What next, that providing tires and air conditioning for the car is "critical" also? What you are saying is that you think the Government should basically take over everything. Transportation, retailers, and everything else.

Alright, Comrade.

Do I want the govmt to dictate rental fees? Hell no. The feds could give incentives such as tax breaks and grants to encourage local low rent construction.

Do not live in grossly overpriced megacities? If you are single with no family around, go for it!
If you have three kids can you really pack up and move to Alabama? Do you even want to if you're black?

Do I want the govmt to build stores and sell groceries? Hell no. The feds can give incentives such as grants and tax breaks, so that inner city folks in blight areas can get less costly markups.

Transportation? Again use tax breaks and grants. In the FL bay area some spend over 3 hours a day on buses to get jobs only available outside their area.

Child care is on Biden's infrastructure list. Yes it's controversial. Hopefully some way might be discovered to make it legal and effective. 44% are on subsistence income and can't spend much on child care.

Finally, tires and air conditioning? Now you are being a total ass hole. You took my post and tried to turn it into a communist plot. You said, "You really are not good at this "debate" thing, are you?" Well, I don't think you are either.

Fuck those not making a living wage

It seems like you agree with andaronjim?

.

 

[gipper]

I have, and I have lived in them. Tell me, have you?

We should get rid of social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That way we could have a wonderful society full of old people wandering the streets and living under bridges. Man would that great!

 

[dblack]

We should get rid of social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That way we could have a wonderful society full of old people wandering the streets and living under bridges. Man would that great!

Why would old people wander the streets? Are you imagining that people just give up if the government isn't there to hold their hand?

 

[james bond]

Aren't you one of the ones complaining that atheists come into the religious forums and cause trouble? So why is it ok for you to spout your religious nonsense in the science and technology forum?

I already provided the links so you can understand about creation SCIENCE. You asked the question and I can tell you didn't read any of it.

Second, what does your post have to do with the topic?

Third, it seems I bug you to the core . Just ignore my posts and stick to the topic.

 

[WinterBorn]

I already provided the links so you can understand about creation SCIENCE. You asked the question and I can tell you didn't read any of it.

Second, what does your post have to do with the topic?

Third, it seems I bug you to the core . Just ignore my posts and stick to the topic.

No, you do not bug me. Not even superficially. I simply take the time to correct your misinterpretation of what science actually is and is not.

 

[Mikeoxenormous]

Do I want the govmt to dictate rental fees? Hell no. The feds could give incentives such as tax breaks and grants to encourage local low rent construction.

Do not live in grossly overpriced megacities? If you are single with no family around, go for it!
If you have three kids can you really pack up and move to Alabama? Do you even want to if you're black?

Do I want the govmt to build stores and sell groceries? Hell no. The feds can give incentives such as grants and tax breaks, so that inner city folks in blight areas can get less costly markups.

Transportation? Again use tax breaks and grants. In the FL bay area some spend over 3 hours a day on buses to get jobs only available outside their area.

Child care is on Biden's infrastructure list. Yes it's controversial. Hopefully some way might be discovered to make it legal and effective. 44% are on subsistence income and can't spend much on child care.

Finally, tires and air conditioning? Now you are being a total ass hole. You took my post and tried to turn it into a communist plot. You said, "You really are not good at this "debate" thing, are you?" Well, I don't think you are either.


It seems like you agree with andaronjim?

.

Sure seems that you want to give a lot of companies tax breaks....So you want the government to pick and choose who wins and who loses, right? Fuck the poor, because the poor keep voting for the very people who keep them poor. Joe Biteme, in raising gas prices has taken over $5,000 a year from the poor. That of course isnt included with the higher food prices and other things getting expensive. Real fucking nice Joe, but a poor person will "Cut his nose off, just to spite his face" when it is voting Dumbocrap.

 

[Mikeoxenormous]

We should get rid of social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That way we could have a wonderful society full of old people wandering the streets and living under bridges. Man would that great!

If instead i was allowed to keep all my money that went to pay for someone else older than me to live off of(Biggest Ponzi Scheme ever) and i invested it, today it would be worth over 50 million dollars. Think about that...

 

[Wuwei]

Sure seems that you want to give a lot of companies tax breaks.

Only as specific performance incentives.

So you want the government to pick and choose who wins and who loses, right

No different than any RFP the govmt already does.

Fuck the poor

You already made that clear.

.

 

[gipper]

Why would old people wander the streets? Are you imagining that people just give up if the government isn't there to hold their hand?

They don’t give up. There aren’t any job opportunities for them.

Would you like to see an end to these social programs?

 

[dblack]

They don’t give up. There aren’t any job opportunities for them.

Would you like to see an end to these social programs?

Ultimately, yes. We can do those sorts of things without resorting to government.

 

[gipper]

Ultimately, yes. We can do those sorts of things without resorting to government.

Yes we could, but we won’t. The rich and big corporations run the country.

 

[Mushroom]

Do not live in grossly overpriced megacities? If you are single with no family around, go for it!
If you have three kids can you really pack up and move to Alabama? Do you even want to if you're black?

Do I want the govmt to build stores and sell groceries? Hell no. The feds can give incentives such as grants and tax breaks, so that inner city folks in blight areas can get less costly markups.

Transportation? Again use tax breaks and grants. In the FL bay area some spend over 3 hours a day on buses to get jobs only available outside their area.

What does having kids or a family have to do with anything? I had a pregnant wife and a daughter when I packed up and moved from LA to North Carolina in 1987. So that makes no sense. And what does being black have to do with anything? In case you did not know, George Wallace has been out of office for decades.

And I read over and over Federal Tax Breaks and Subsidies. You are aware that is not the problem, right? In LA, the average cost to build a new grocery store is in excess of $5 million per square foot! And then add on top of that the insane prices of the land itself. And with an average return of only 2%, no amount of Federal Tax Breaks would ever let them break even. Besides, the back-breaker in addition to the cost of the land is the state and local taxes. Not the Federal ones.

And kind of hard to give tax breaks for "transportation", when almost all of it is owned by the government already. What, do you think the San Francisco BART system, or Los Angeles MTA pay taxes? They no more pay taxes than AMTRAK does. They are government entities themselves. Which to me is a lot of this very problem. Things like this should be returned back to private ownership when practical, because they actually have an interest in making a profit. Not just trying to solve a problem by throwing more money at it.

Subsidies work for say air travel and interstate bussing, because that is still all privately owned. Tax breaks help them, but for the municipal transit in the majority of cities, that is foolish to even suggest.

 

[Wuwei]

In LA, the average cost to build a new grocery store is in excess of $5 million per square foot! And then add on top of that the insane prices of the land itself.

Wal-mart Neighborhood markets average about 42,000 square feet

Walmart - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If you calculate the average price of a small grocery store using your figures, it is 42,000 x $5,000,000 = $210,000,000,000. That's enough money to build several IC chip factories!

And with an average return of only 2%

"Grocery stores in general have even smaller markup. Their gross margin is 10.47 percent on average, so their markup is 12 percent."​

On average, how much do stores mark up products? | Entrepreneur

www.entrepreneur.com

In this case you exaggerated by only a factor of 5.

Buddy, you lost all credibility. I really dislike trolls.

.

 

[Mushroom]

If you calculate the average price of a small grocery store using your figures, it is 42,000 x $5,000,000 = $210,000,000,000. That's enough money to build several IC chip factories!

That is for an existing building, and normally in smaller communities. Not in Los Angeles. Where a 780 square foot house on a 5,500 square foot lot easily runs over $750,000.

And you are confusing markup with profit. They are not the same thing, not at all. Markup is the amount over cost they charge, not the amount they make once all other things are removed from that (payroll, utilities, insurance, maintenance, taxes, theft, spoilage, etc). Plus in general, for the size of a store, you must on average purchase 100-150% more for parking and access.

50,000 square foot store? You are going to need over 200,000 square feet of land. That figure was on land that is unowned, with no structure on it at all. And it is a complete figure, including the initial stock. Even outside of LA, most medium sized grocery stores have billions of dollars worth of inventory. I was the manager of a "dollar store" just a few years ago, and not even a large one. And our inventory ran into the millions of dollars. And nothing there was priced over $1.

You call me a troll, but can not tell the difference between markup and profit. What, you think the markup is entirely profit, and there are no expenses involved?

 

[ThunderKiss1965]

The latest space EX joy ride into space $243 dollars spent so people can fly into space. Think of all the homes that could have been built for the homeless for $243 million dollars. What a waste.!!?

The US alone has spent 22 trillion on the war on poverty, why do we still have poor people ?

 

[Wuwei]

The US alone has spent 22 trillion on the war on poverty, why do we still have poor people ?

Because 44% of people don't make a living wage.

Almost half of all Americans work in low-wage jobs

The low-wage workforce is part of every local U.S. economy, but it takes the biggest toll in the South and West.

www.cbsnews.com

America's unemployment rate is at a half-century low, but it also has a job-quality problem that affects nearly half the population, with a study finding 44% of U.S. workers are employed in low-wage jobs that pay median annual wages of $18,000.​

 

[dblack]

Because 44% of people don't make a living wage.

Won't that change after they all die?

 

[Wuwei]

Won't that change after they all die?

That's funny. As you know the jobs will still be low paying, but the people will be different.