[cwhiz]

Not a spending problem.

Proceeds to list things that we spend and invest unnecessarily on.

We have a subway system in NYC. Run by the MTA. A bloated and incompetent organization that needs a billion dollars to extend a subway line a single mile, and will routinely spend hundreds of millions of dollars on unnecessary bridge painting and other shenanigans.

There’s a reason we don’t have nice things, and it’s not because our taxes are too low.

Edit: It is actually $3.5 billion for a mile.

[iso1631]

London's 2 mile northern line extension costs about $1.7b, so doesnt sound out of whack. Berlin did extend the U5 about 1.4 miles for $600m but it's the right order of magnitude.

[cwhiz]

I was wrong. The latest expansion was $3.5 billion per mile.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...

[titzer]

A billion dollars a mile is because corruption.

[cwhiz]

Call it whatever you like. The MTA spends $17 billion per year.

And we get rickety subway service and piss stained stations that make you feel as if you’ve traveled in time back to the 80s.

How much does Germany spend per year on rail?

[dredmorbius]

NYC's nuclear deterrent is among the smaller in the world.

Taxes supporting the US arsenal are applied nationwide.