The word ‘Boondoggle’ comes to mind whenever I see the California High-Speed Rail and Gavin Newsom being discussed in the news. It’s never good news. Why? It’s a boondoggle. Now, a boondoggle is loosely defined as:
Wasteful Spending: An expensive public or corporate project that goes over budget and serves no practical purpose.
Busywork: Doing tasks that look official or keep people occupied but have zero actual worth.
Of course, having high speed rail in California would be useful, that’s the bummer here. It would have value. But sadly (and predictably) it’s nothing but a cash cow for everyone involved. It’s a money pit for the people of California and now it’s starting to affect the rest of American taxpayers. See, the train project is going to run out of money, and I think they will want the federal government (you and me) to step in. The answer from over here? A firm ‘Hell No!’
Let’s learn more! Shall we?
Boondoggle alert!
Just in case some of you are new to the scam: A government starts a project that sounds good on paper. Then they propose a way for taxpayers to pay for it. The project then goes wildly over budget. The people involved in the project get wealthy and the taxpayer get the shaft. The cost of the project is then re-evaluated and increased. The taxpayer pays the new, bigger bill and the project still barely moves forward. Then costs are increased again. This cycle repeats until the taxpayer have had enough. The money has disappeared and there is little or nothing to show for the money spent. Unless you were on the government payroll for the project. Those people somehow got rich. Hmmmm.
