When Barack Obama
used the transcontinental railroads as an example of the wonderful things that
can be accomplished with grandiose government programs, he was attacked
for mistakenly referring to the railroads as “intercontinental.” Notably, he was attacked by
approximately no one for talking up a government program that in reality should
be best remembered as a pioneering feat in government corruption, corporate
welfare, and immense waste.
Although not
related in quite the heroic terms it once was, the transcontinental railroads
retain their place as one of the great alleged success stories of
nineteenth-century America. According to the popular myths, the same myths now
exploited by the president, and challenged by no one, the railroads, these
supposedly great monuments to the ingenuity of American industrialists, united
East and West by bringing together the economies of the West coast and the East
coast. This government program then set the stage for the massive economic
growth and national greatness that would occur in the United States during the
early twentieth century.
And yet, few
claims about the necessity or success of the transcontinental railroads are
true…..To Read More…..
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