Insanity: Red China Building US Railroad

If you're looking for the definition of insanity this is it.

A privately held US casino building company is partnering with a state-owned Red Chinese company to build a high-speed railroad between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.   What could possibly be wrong with this.

1.  Red China is conducting an undeclared war in the South and East China Seas to grab territory from longtime US friends and allies Japan and the Philippines.  Someone needs to stand up to these people and tell them that it's not going to be business as usual as long as they're the aggressor in East Asia.

1.1 Red China threatening reprisals if South Korean installs a missile defense system to defend against Red China's client state North Korea's nuclear sabre rattling.

2.  Red China's idea of bilateral trade with its best customer, the United States, is: "heads we win; tails you lose."   Red China gets to sell all the subsidized products, including steel, it wants in the US while US access to Red China's markets is highly restricted.

3.  The US needs to fix its aging infrastructure, especially to give its economy a boost. but sourcing all the technology, including the railroad engines and trains, and engineering from Red China isn't going to help much.  It's just going to add to the huge trade deficit and bill we owe Red China.

4.  The company organizing the high-speed railroad wants a $6 billion loan from the US government.  In effect, the federal government will end up subsidizing more of its trade deficit with Red China.   Moreover, it is doubtful the train service will be economically viable.   It's really a high speed rail service from Las Vegas to Victorville, California, a couple of hours drive from Los Angeles.   When the railroad goes bankrupt and the loan isn't repaid, the US taxpayer will end up holding the bag and the bill.

5.  Why should the US taxpayer subsidize a Red Chinese construction project?   Never mind the federal loan and other outright federal subsidies that may or may not happen.   The railroad can't be built without using the interstate highway right of way between Victorville and Las Vegas.   A private company using a Red Chinese railroad building contractor needs to pay full market prices for any right of way originally paid for by US taxpayers.   Big, big bucks in today's dollars.

6. After this money loser gets built, they want build a high-speed line from Las Vegas to Phoenix, and lose even more money.   But why should they care.  In the end they'll declare bankruptcy and the US taxpayer will be stuck with the bill.

Wrong.  So very, very wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XpressWest

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/10/17/california-rail-china