I saw this headline in the news today: "GOP pushes private rail investment"
Of course, the assumptions behind this policy are 1) that private development is more efficient than government funded development and 2) that the profit motive is sufficient incentive for private companies to develop HSR systems.
At the same time, the GOP absolutely refuses to eliminate subsidies for big oil. The assumptions here seem to be that the profit motive in the energy industry is not sufficient incentive for oil companies to develop new oil sources.
I don't quite get it - why does oil need government incentives while HSR doesn't?
I think the GOP has their priorities exactly reversed. Oil extraction is a well establish industry that has been around virtually forever. It's not new, it's not a start-up industry and it's not fundamentally new technology. Furthermore, the oil industry has more than enough capital, cash and income flow to fund any R&D necessary to develop new sources or techniques, and has a proven profit potential that should provide more than enough financial incentive to do so.
If the GOP really believes in free market economics, they should be applied here - of all the industries we have, oil is in the best position to let economics guide operations. There is plenty of profit potential to incent more drilling and more production without extra tax incentives.
HSR, on the other hand, is a new industry and a new technology. There will be a significant cost to enter that is probably not funded by existing capital, cash or income flows. The profit potential seems intuitive, but has not yet been proven. It's an essential infrastructure capability that the country must take to continue to be competitive in the future - just like the interstate highways were a generation ago. This is exactly where tax dollars should be spent. Let's get an important new technology off the ground with "seed money" until it can be self-sustaining. And let's invest in American jobs in the process. Good jobs in research, development, engineering and construction.