united states: hey you know how we have a pretty extensive railway system?
united states: looks like this? it’s basically everywhere?
americans: yes we are aware
united states: what if we pretty much only gave you this amount of track to use for public transportation? this is good right?
This is actually really interesting in the “I want to kill everyone” sort of way:
Back when oil was getting popular for use in personal modes of transportation, the companies that provided it decided to hand together and corner the market. Before personal vehicles, railways of various kinds, INCLUDING streetcars and trollies, were MASSIVELY popular. These companies either outright bought companies or, together, bought enough ownership in the companies to either directly shut them down, scale them back, or make them shift focus away from public transportation so as to force personal vehicle acquisition.
This is why AmTrak only has this little portion of publicly accessible railway: people used to be allowed to ride wherever they wanted but oil companies got greedy.
If I remember correctly when Amtrak was set up, the Republicans in Congress hated it. They couldn’t outright stop it, but they could write the rules and set it up in such a way that it’s almost impossible for it to succeed financially. That’s why everyone always points to Amtrak as the reason expanding the rail system won’t work. “Look how badly Amtrak is doing. Public rail just doesn’t work.”
“It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain, must be obtained by their charms and weakness.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (via philosophybits)
