fecrails wrote:buzz456 wrote:Just remember while ya'll are trashing the greed of the folks at the top that this is a govmit agency, not the greedy capitalists.
You seem to be implying in your response to my comments that I am in some way opposed to capitalism. As the owner and director of two corporations that I started from scratch some thirty years ago, I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to profit from and enjoy "The American Dream" under our country's economic system. I also believe that I have operated my companies with a strong moral and ethical compass whereby my employees and customers health, safety, and lives were considered to have a greater value than my "bottom line".
What I remember with regard to the greedy capitalist, is that the American populace weighed in on that issue at the turn of the last century. The Progressive Movement, Theodore Roosevelt, organized labor, and some of the resulting legislation such as The Sherman Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 among others began to bring about social and economic changes that curbed the behavior of the greedy capitalist. They've been referred to as the Robber Barons by their critics and were accused of putting human safety and treatment as a low or no priority as part of their business strategy. Not surprising many of them established our modern railroad infrastructure. Go figure!
Agreed Buzz, I'm done with the politics. Back to train simming.
Well if you were an owner and director of two corporations that you started from scratch.... then you should understand cost VS. benefit analysis I mentioned earlier. It's business 101.
How many trains and passengers have gone over this very track in the last 50 years? Once you come up with those numbers, then come up with amount of accidents that have happened on this line VS people moved and train miles run. Now look at all those accidents and total up the amount of them that would have likely been prevented had a 2nd engineer been in the mix. Then look at how much all those extra engineers would cost in salary and benefits over those 50 years and compare them to the cost and frequency of accidents that would have LIKELY been prevented had a 2nd engineer been on board.
You can't bubble wrap the world. If it was so much about saving lives, we'd have to stop people from driving cars in order to save the 30,000+ deaths we average each year on American roads. But we don't do that now do we? Why? Because based on the sheer number of miles driven each year where the occupants lives are NOT lost....FAR out number those that are lost.
Using some people's logic here, there should be two drivers on all buses and semi-trucks. Heck... why not require it of ALL driven vehicles including cars? After all.... it's about saving lives....right?!?
As for your greed comments? Greed is not a fact. It is an opinion in the eyes of the beholder. What's greed to one person, is perfectly reasonable to the next person.
As for the transit authority's decision to put a 2nd engineer on these routes now? It's all about a bunch of "feel good" public relations politics baloney. They know darn well how rarely such things ever happen. It's a statistical red herring.
