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A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

nytimes.com

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Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#81

Post by davidf18 »

entee wrote: post #37
davidf18 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "By your argument, California could easily afford to pay for it if only Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Montana, and Kentucky were not "mooching" off of it." Not if the funds are paying for people living in these states legally. . Surely you see the distinction between funding people legally living in the US and those living here illegally. What I know is that if California elected responsible politicians that u…

A major flaw in your argument is the implication that undocumented individuals in CA (or the US in general) do not pay for the services they use. While in certain cases that might be true, in others they are net contributors. See social security taxes [1]. I also think you're making a fairly inflammatory argument without providing much data or grappling with the practical implications of your argument. Even if we wer…

> "A major flaw in your argument is the implication that undocumented individuals in CA"

"undocumented individuals" is a euphemism that does not help the discussion and tends to minimize and obfuscate the language so as to seemingly minimize the fact that they are living in the country against the law. The correct term is illegal alien (look it up if you don't believe me).

My argument is a simple one that I think most people agree with which is this: people that live in this country illegally do not deserve taxpayer funds. I am not making any assumptions, just a statement.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#82

Post by davidf18 »

eon1 wrote: post #71
davidf18 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of down voting, please state why you want to fund people who are living in the US illegally instead of funding a train for people who are here legally.

> Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

People should have the courage to state their opinion instead of simply down voting. I did not state something that was incorrect at least as far as I know and if I did, I would like to know what is incorrect about it.

Perhaps there should be a rule that when downvoting, people state the reason. I suspect that some readers believe that people living here illegally deserve taxpayer funds. If so, they should have the courage of their convictions.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#83

Post by davidf18 »

wcummings wrote: post #49
davidf18 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are down voting, the but the assessment is a correct one: California citizens need to elect responsible politicians that spend money on people who live in the the US and CA legally instead of those illegally. If they elected responsible politicians that understood this, they would have their train funded. Taxes should be only spent on people living in the US legally. Not certain why people have a problem with…

They're downvoting because your argument is inflammatory, poorly informed and unpersuasive.

Please be specific. What is inflammatory? What is uninformed? It seems to be to just be ad hominem attacks.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#84

Post by davidf18 »

pvg wrote: post #18
davidf18 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are down voting, the but the assessment is a correct one: California citizens need to elect responsible politicians that spend money on people who live in the the US and CA legally instead of those illegally. If they elected responsible politicians that understood this, they would have their train funded. Taxes should be only spent on people living in the US legally. Not certain why people have a problem with…

They're much more likely downvoting you for trying to hijack the thread with an unrelated political topic/flamefest and then complaining about getting downvoted.

But it is related. The fact is that the NYT article was complaining about the lack of federal funds, but the true fact is that if the citizens of California elected politicians who did not unwisely pay for people living here illegally, they would have the money for the electric rail. Since money if fungible, since California politicians decided that taxpayer money should go towards people living here illegally, then it means that federal funds are going towards people living here illegally. I think this argument is very sound. I'm really tired of people writing articles and other complaining without stating the full context.

If that electric rail is so very important to California, and I believe it is, then the citizens of California should elect officials that do not use valuable and scarce taxpayer funds to pay for services for people living here illegally. They should elect politicians that spend taxpayer money for the benefit of people living here legally which includes the electric train.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#85

Post by smaili »

> By any measure, Caltrain is the equivalent of a dated personal computer running Windows 95 way overdue for an upgrade. Rush-hour trains are so crowded that their aisles are filled with passengers. Trains break down frequently and the locomotives belch plumes of black smoke into the air — a sight more in line with the early industrial age than 21st century Silicon Valley.

As a frequent commuter, I couldn't agree more with this paragraph.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#86

Post by davidf18 »

1_2__3 wrote: post #21
davidf18 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are down voting, the but the assessment is a correct one: California citizens need to elect responsible politicians that spend money on people who live in the the US and CA legally instead of those illegally. If they elected responsible politicians that understood this, they would have their train funded. Taxes should be only spent on people living in the US legally. Not certain why people have a problem with…

> Not certain why people have a problem with that. I'm even less certain you're willing to listen to anyone who tries to explain to you how faulty your logic is. Especially since you repeatedly try to distill down the complicated topics to bumperstickerisms.

Please explain why taxpayer funds should be funding people who live in this country illegally. To state that it is a bumperstickerism without providing an explanation for why this is so is an ad hominem attack.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#87

Post by BurningFrog »

dragonwriter wrote: post #32
ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #4

They should've started high speed rail in the bookends, since any construction there would have immediate benefits for hundreds of thousands of riders, and instill public confidence in the project. That would've helped Caltrain electrification right there.

> They should've started high speed rail in the bookends, since any construction there would have immediate benefits for hundreds of thousands of riders, and instill public confidence in the project. The bookends are the most expensive part to build in, and the parts with the best existing mass transit; their of the least marginal value until they are connected with each other. San Jose into the Valley is quite a sen…

The bookends also has the most lawyers to block construction.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#88

Post by mikejmoffitt »

One thing that shouldn't change is the Caltrain ticketing UI. The interface is simple enough to use, and it responds to user input instantly. I can select the ticket I want with four taps in about a second, where the only slowdown is the actual payment.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#89

Post by davidf18 »

erentz wrote: post #29

Question: the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers from the federal government is pretty crazy to me. I'll grant some imbalances are necessary - you will always have richer and poorer areas of the country. But when he gap is as wide as it is, and then it is turned into a tool for punishing CA due to our politics, at what point should CA seek to seriously tackle this? Firstly of course is the ver…

Much of the wealth in California comes from high technology. The research of the high technology came from the Federal Government. The training of the PhDs that created the research (think semiconductors) came from the NSF and NIH and other federal funds.

Thus, it is not unlike a VC making early stage investments in a company.

BTW, I'm in NY State and it also has net tax outflows.

Re: A Silicon Valley Train Gets Stuck

#90

Post by guelo »

masonic wrote: post #63
erentz wrote: post #29

Question: the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers from the federal government is pretty crazy to me. I'll grant some imbalances are necessary - you will always have richer and poorer areas of the country. But when he gap is as wide as it is, and then it is turned into a tool for punishing CA due to our politics, at what point should CA seek to seriously tackle this? Firstly of course is the ver…

the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers Do you have a firsthand source for that, or are you just quoting unsupported media quotes? The one study on that topic that I've seen omitted a lot of Federal spending in CA, such as transfer payments, military personnel, CA's share of defense spending, etc. Remember that CA has had a lot of power in Congress under Democrats, including two senior Senators…

Every state gets two senators.
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