I don't imagine that the airline industry has a massive lobbying effort in Japan (or other countries) that keep high speed rail at bay here in the good old US of A.
Industries lobby. They certainly lobby in Brussels where there are hundreds of full time lobbying firms just like in DC. . In Europe airlines have lobbied to keep fuel prices low and fares low, which they are. Its usually cheaper to fly 2 hours in Europe than in the USA. I am just guessing, but I dont see why airlines wouldn't lobby in Japan too
Countries like Japan and most of Europe have the money - and the expertise- do do public transport well. One major reason is that they spend much less, as a percentage of GDP, on defense, than the United States does. We spend 2-4 x more than these countries and our bases, missiles and soldiers in their countries are there to protect them. These billions of dollars PER YEAR add up to a lot of money that the USA could spend on lovely things IF we didnt spend it on protecting our allies.
Thankfully, Trump has pointed this out and is trying to insist that our allies pull their own weight and stop freeloading. This has the whole foreign policy establishment hyperventilating. But its important to point out whenever someone praises other countries marvelous public transport or public services.
I don't imagine that the airline industry has a massive lobbying effort in Japan (or other countries) that keep high speed rail at bay here in the good old US of A.
Industries lobby. They certainly lobby in Brussels where there are hundreds of full time lobbying firms just like in DC. . In Europe airlines have lobbied to keep fuel prices low and fares low, which they are. Its usually cheaper to fly 2 hours in Europe than in the USA. I am just guessing, but I dont see why airlines wouldn't lobby in Japan too
Countries like Japan and most of Europe have the money - and the expertise- do do public transport well. One major reason is that they spend much less, as a percentage of GDP, on defense, than the United States does. We spend 2-4 x more than these countries and our bases, missiles and soldiers in their countries are there to protect them. These billions of dollars PER YEAR add up to a lot of money that the USA could spend on lovely things IF we didnt spend it on protecting our allies.
Thankfully, Trump has pointed this out and is trying to insist that our allies pull their own weight and stop freeloading. This has the whole foreign policy establishment hyperventilating. But its important to point out whenever someone praises other countries marvelous public transport or public services.