Where is the US economy headed?

You're not making any sense. The private sector continues to hire more workers, and the unemployment rate continues to drop. The US economy is by far the strongest in the world. When considered from the fact that we represent only five percent of the world population, it's an amazing feat of sorts.

You gotta get your head out of that dark place. Holiday season sales increased by 3.8% over last year. More American consumers are feeling more confidence in our economy as nowhere else on this planet.

China has about 10,000 miles of high speed rail, America has 28 (On the NEC, broken up into 2 stretches).

If you have to park in the middle of Boston and rent a car in the middle of NYC, it becomes less cost effective

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China has about 10,000 miles of high speed rail, America has 28 (On the NEC, broken up into 2 stretches).

It just now occurred to me, Hawkeye; what could you possibly achieve from a high-speed train on fourteen miles of track?

No, actually we dont, and we are not likely to get it because we have no money and the courts here make it almost impossible to build big projects like this. The cost of complying with court orders is astronomical, and there is always one more party itching to throw the enterprise into the courts for 5 or ten years over something or another.

Okay, you dismiss reasons as excuses and don't address a single point. I leave you.

In what can only be described as a prime example of government waste, NASA spent $349 million on a tower in Mississippi that they never even used. The worst part about the project is that Congress and NASA knew that the tower would never be used four years before the project finished. Instead of scrapping the rest of the tower project and saving hundreds of millions of dollars, Congress demanded that the project be seen to completion. The icing on the cake — it will cost tax payers $700,000 a year to maintain the empty, unused tower.

The Washington Post reported the failed project, noting that the tower is what happens to a big bureaucracy after its sense of mission starts to fade. NASA is the big bureaucracy the report speaks to, as it seems that the agency no longer has a firm mission. With projects constantly being scrapped and government bodies constantly at ends on exactly where the agency should be spending its time and effort, NASA seems to no longer know what mission will actually make it to the table.

Instead, the Post reports NASA is being used by Congress for infusing money into their communities.

“Its congressional overseers tended to view NASA first as a means to deliver pork back home, and second as a means to deliver Americans into space.”

The Mississippi tower project exemplifies the problems within pork barrel spending and inconsistent goals. The tower broke ground back in 2007. However, in 2010, the rocket that was to be tested at the site was scrapped. Therefore, the specialized tower, called the A-3 test stand, was no longer needed. However, instead of stopping the project in 2010 when Congress and NASA realized the tower would no longer be needed, Congress did something that seems almost insane — they demanded the project continue. Millions of dollars to be washed down the drain building a tower they knew would not be used, but the demand ensured the infusion of money into Mississippi as promised.

The employees working on the project as contractors also felt betrayed. David Forshee, a general foreman who spent 18 months helping build the tower, said it “is heartbreaking” to find out something like this when you thought you were “doing something good.” Forshee says he had no idea the project would be scrapped upon completion. Though Forshee was paid for his time working on the project, it didn’t stop him from having some harsh words to those who insisted the project continue even after it wasn’t needed.


Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1684371/nasa-spends-349-million-on-tower-closes-it-the-day-it-is-finished-never-to-be-used/#zCVkeYsYxih6vm7L.99

America used to be the can do nation. No more.

Debunked, totally. Try some site with an .org suffix.

WORLDSRICHESTCOUNTRIES.COM - Whois Information

You have evidence to back this claim? China surpassed the USA, even for standard of living, back in October from memory.

Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real (i.e. inflation adjusted) income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality, Disposable Energy (people's disposable income's ability to buy energy) and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods (such as number of refrigerators per 1000 people), or measures of health such as life expectancy. It is the ease by which people living in a time or place are able to satisfy their needs and/or wants.