METRO Magazine
Some of the rhetoric coming out of the mouths of conservative, anti-government politicians these days is no less than astonishing in its ignorance about infrastructure spending. They hold to the myth that high-speed rail spending – or even all rail spending – by government will not create jobs or economic growth. This is part of a larger myth that only non-government actions like private investment are what create private sector jobs and that government simply needs to get out of the way.
Government’s role in investment
The truth is that government has always had a role in transportation infrastructure investment, at least from the days of the Roman Empire, and that this transportation investment leads to greater economic growth. It was proven during the Great Depression and again and again with the Interstate Highway System, new major rail and bus transit investments in cities, and with transportation funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office and other government reports, transit investments created the most jobs per million dollars spent in that stimulus legislation. The same would hold for high-speed rail.
(more)
