High-Cost Rail – Part 113 Oxford on “Megaprojects”

July 26, 2015

I enjoyed a little squib in the Wall Street Journal this past week about large public or public-private projects. They wrote

One of the most enlightening recent guides to modern politics is a study of such politicial "megaprojects." Think California's "bullet train". According to Bent Flyvbjerg of Oxford University, the world is increasingly addicted to such boondoggles, which annually consume between 6% and 9% of global GDP. …These projects operate on the principle of of bombastic exaggeration. Mr. Flyvbjerg calls it "survival of the unfittest"–a politicized selection process that rewards those promoters who are most shameless in overstating benefits and understating costs.

Bingo. And he even used my favorite term for these – Boondoggle. We have known this for at least four years as people dug into the numbers. In the meantime the bulldozers continue to generate CO2 that will never be recouped and burn tax dollars that are both spent illegally and wastefully.

Posted in Climate, High Speed Rail

3 responses to “High-Cost Rail – Part 113 Oxford on “Megaprojects””

pat giorni

August 21, 2015

Still not knowing how to post a new article, I’ve used the last….
Take a look-see at this and begin preparation for the latest Chapter of They are coming where we live to lie to us to our face:
http://cert1.mail-msst.com/KyjrX/11gzrs6gvu1f11e/k2my5b9cmq31eKb/uci/p32r31eKqvnqeK/n17uas2/kywox?_c=d|11s1hit6femt11o|13e23c2fnh71alx&_ce=1440217103.877165d73d12733e4d2ab3058dcafe07
Peter Garrison

August 22, 2015

Note the stack-and-pack housing next to the tracks. Burlingame’s future? Probably.
Cassandra
you are the defrauded victims

August 22, 2015

When will the general public accept that Jerry Brown & CO are self-enriching fraudsters with heavy connections to organized crime from the top to the bottom?
And, that this is BAD for the individual citizen and for society, and even BAD for government workers that wink-wink support and benefit from this fraudster system in various ways – directly and indirectly?
Vote for Jerry Brown & CO – it’s for the trees, the poor, down-trodden, illegal immigrants, and…it’s for the children.
No, it’s for the fraudsters. And, you are the defrauded victims.

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