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fubarobfusco comments on Open thread, August 19-25, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: David_Gerard 19 August 2013 06:58AM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 20 August 2013 11:49:04PM 0 points [-]

Are high speed trains profitable enough for people to build them without government money?

Are highways?

Comment author: DanielLC 21 August 2013 03:23:34AM 2 points [-]

Some roads do collect tolls. Again, I don't know how to look it up, but I don't think they have government help. They're in the minority, but they show that having roads is socially optimal. Similarly, if there are high-speed trains that operate without government help, we know that it's good to have high-speed trains, and while it may be that government encouragement is resulting in too many of them being built, we should still build some.