Not every idea that’s good for the country is a profit-making idea for some company somewhere. It’s never going to be a profitable venture for some company to come up with this idea [pointing to a railroad bridge] and build it on spec. That’s not gonna happen! It needs some government leadership frankly to get something done in common that’s gonna benefit the country as a whole.
She articulates what many of us believe... And quite well, thank you.
(And for the record, it's not a railroad bridge she was pointing to, but the new auto bridge that routes traffic away from directly passing over the Hoover Dam.) She could just as easily have been pointing to the Hoover Dam itself, or to any of the other dams and water/flood-control projects, and electricity-generating projects of the TVA and the other projects from the Roosevelt era. The point is well-made that there many things that are good for the country that are not profit-making ideas for some company somewhere. The Interstate Highway system, for one. Airports. Air Traffic Control Systems. National Defense... The list goes on...and on.....and on.....
Like the goverment sponsored bridge to nowhere? I doubt private enterprise would have built that on spec.
Just kidding, there are some projects goverment needs to jumpstart like the interstate highway system. But too often goverment thinks they have to initiate everything from bridges to the cowboy poetry festival.
I especially hate the dictum every big project needs to devote a percentage to art. Usually something ghastly like the DIA killer bronco.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
The REPUBLICAN earmark, "Bridge to Nowhere"? Yes, I remember it well...
"Government" doesn't "think"... People do... People are government; and yes, there are many things that the People who represent our Government do on our behalf. As I recall, it was REPUBLICAN president Eisenhower who initiated the Interstate Highway system.
You really need to get over this "Government = bad" mindset. It's not healthy.
I used to watch Maddow and found her amusing, but since Olberman has left, she feels she must take up the torch for him and has become more strident than bemused when reporting her stories.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
