Is that why other countries with substantially more unions are wildly cheaper and astoundingly faster?

Look at Spain. More unionized, 1/10th the cost and they build the entire length of the CA HSR every two years.

The fastest, cheapest construction of hsr is literally by communists...

Why is there always someone who blames unions for everything with zero empirical analysis?

With all do respect, and I mean this sincerely, it makes you look stupid.

> Is that why other countries with substantially more unions are wildly cheaper and astoundingly faster?

Unions, the laws around them, political systems, and union culture are different everywhere. In the US, unions blindly support candidates who support more government spending, more big projects, more benefits for their union or projects, etc. They get money by the forced collection of union dues from workers and use it to influence politics. They extort the public by regularly striking - for example the seasonal predictable strikes by teachers, hurting a critical service of education - all while resisting accountability and competition. The collusion inherent to industry wide unions leads to reduced competition and increased labor prices.

Unions are definitely a part of the CA HSR problem. They benefit greatly from this boondoggle, and taxpayer money is basically stolen from others and funneled to them. But I do acknowledge that they may not be the biggest problem in terms of the cost overrun.

However they play a big role in the politics of it - supporting legislation, candidates, and contracts that help them. It’s why Newsom keeps talking up the union labor involved in CA HSR and how so many union jobs are created by it.

> With all do respect, and I mean this sincerely, it makes you look stupid.

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