One characteristic of socialism is its unbearable bureaucracy that bogs things down. Projects that would take the free market a short time to complete drag on for years, with added costs and extended deadlines. Such undertakings can afford to break all the rules since there is no market to hold them accountable. An ever-ready government is prepared to foot the bill.
The California bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is a good example of what can go wrong when a leftist government gets involved. The train was supposed to represent the cutting edge in public transportation, putting the state on par with European models. The connection between the two highly populated areas would take less than three hours.
From the beginning, not everyone was convinced that it would work. The 2008 ballot initiative approving the project squeaked by. It promised a north-south rail line by 2020 at a bargain price of $33 billion. It remains America’s largest active infrastructure project, and it appears it will remain so for a long time.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority is in charge of the project. Since the work began, it has been plagued by cost overruns and missed deadlines. Legal battles with localities, policy shifts and leadership changes have turned this California dream into a nightmare.
A conservative estimate of the total cost is now $126 billion, while others quote figures as high as $231 billion as more realistic. Some $15 billion has already been spent.
Meanwhile, the project’s current phase will run out of funding by the end of the year. The 2020 deadline for the line’s full operation has been pushed back to 2040. A partial line might be ready by 2033.
After 18 years on the job, the Authority has little to show for all its efforts. It has bought thousands of land parcels and built some giant overpasses, concrete walls and station structures in preparation for the line. However, it has yet to lay a single rail, much less buy a train.
Present efforts are further limited to the midsection of the line running through the sparsely populated agricultural lands of the Central Valley, from Merced to Bakersfield. There is little demand to travel this route, which hardly warrants a bullet train. When operating, this part of the rail line will not be profitable and will require subsidies to remain viable.
Only seven years later do the planners hope to connect the Central Valley section to the more profitable links to the Bay and Los Angeles areas, which was the dazzling promise that prompted voters to approve the measure.
Meanwhile, the line has succeeded in dividing communities between those who want the train and those who don’t. It is uprooting businesses, cutting through neighborhoods and disrupting the peaceful lives of citizens.
Alas, with the state failing to finance the line, the project’s manager is seeking private investors to keep the project afloat…
California’s bullet train to nowhere is a good example of what happens when socialist thinking gets involved in projects that are better left to the private sector. Everything that could have gone wrong did. It will cost more, take longer and not meet travel needs.
Now imagine if other sectors follow the bullet train’s lead by adopting socialist goals. There could be state-run grocery stores with empty shelves. Fare-free buses could break down. State-run rental properties could become uninhabitable. Companies could be forced to offer benefits and work schedules they cannot afford. Everything will cost more, take longer and bankrupt businesses.
However, such possibilities don’t have to take place in California, which is known for its leftist schemes. These other options are part of the official program of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose candidates are now winning some elections. The group’s platform, like the train, promises everything to everyone without worrying about who will foot the bill.
Indeed, with socialism, everything is possible. Its terrible inefficiency can make even bullet trains slow down.