Acela, BART, Boeing LRV, Colorado Railcar, Amtrak “California” cars are just some examples where the public got stuck with very crappy and overpriced vehicles compared to what was available “off-the-shelf” from existing manufacturers in the world market.

Building reliable 224mph high-speed rail trains involves some very complex engineering. With so many very established manufacturers out there, who have huge economies-of-scale and decades of experience, why try to re-invent the wheel?

While the environment, Iraq and other hot topics seem to hold the political spotlight, organized labor (or lack thereof) is one of the fundamental reasons why Barack Obama was elected, and it’s certainly not lost on people in Michigan, as well as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Indiana, Chicagoland, etc.

We elected the Democrats BECAUSE they can be very persuasive in opening these plants with union workers. And let’s not forget - the very height of Labor in America was the 1950’s, right? Was that not arguably the most prosperous time in American history?

Here’s my idea for product quality and “planned obsolescence”: Any rail vehicle manufactured for passenger service must come with at LEAST a ten-year warranty TO THE GOVERNMENT. If the quality of the product isn’t good enough to last ten years (for example), than the manufacturer will be penalized. Let me know if anything like this already exists! I know there are federal standards for manufacturers (obviously), but I’m talking about something bigger and more aggressive. Planned obsolescence must not be allowed!

just gotta make sure that the quality is good. from their cars, i would worry. there’s something to be said for the foreign designs, since they’ve been in the (modern) business for longer and have the know-how. last thing we want is GM and Chrysler coming out with shiny new trains that break down, and don’t last as long as off-the-shelf european or asian models…

Oh, wait. They have unions, but they don’t have to pay the medical costs of their employees and their dependents. In every other developed country, medical care is a national concern, but not an employer’s problem.

Only in America do we persist in a system in which MANY thousands of dollars in annual medical costs is added to the cost of each and every employee on payroll.

In the U.S. we have made medical care a crushing tax on employment! Worked out well, do you think?

Unfortunately for MI, you’re likelier to see these factories converted or created in non-union states.

Further - the infrastructure needed to make X amount of trains is lot less than having to make 3X amount of cars. The government would also have to think about whether or not we can become competitive and actually make GM internationally competitive. Remember, these are big things - they are not that easy to ship to India, or other developing nations, for instance. And who says that the developing world will WANT sustainable transport, when it is so much easier to stimulate aggregate demand with the individual consumption of cheaply made cars?

Look at Tata in India, for instance.

Michael Moore seems to have thought this out a bit more. His strategy is a lot more diversified.

I think it’s a wonderful idea.

But stick with those that know what they’re doing. Back in the 60s it was a fad to get aerospace companies to make transit equipment, and that didn’t work out very well at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro-Motive_Diesel